


The Dead Bury Themselves

by Ikira, SpiritusRex



Series: Tadashi's Guide to the Other Side [2]
Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Gen, Here there be dragons, Hurt/Comfort, LITERALLY, Might want to read the first one first, Sequel, Sorry Tadashi we love you but we love seeing you hurt more, Supernatural AU - Freeform, character whump, ghost au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2015-09-12
Packaged: 2018-03-20 22:43:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3667932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ikira/pseuds/Ikira, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritusRex/pseuds/SpiritusRex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three months after the confrontation with the Onryo, Hiro is slowly learning to balance his new roles as a college student, superhero, and being the last living spirit medium in the city of San Fransokyo. It's been hard work mastering his powers, but it'll all be worth it when he finally becomes strong enough to see Tadashi once more.</p><p>But when a new supernatural threat arises, and Hiro has to face it without the rest of the team, he’s going to have to put everything he’s learned into practice in order to save the city, both normal and supernatural. He might even have to work with someone he’d never thought would become involved in his double life.</p><p>But to save his brother, he's willing to do anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What Lurks Below

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: creepy eyes in the darkness below. They will blink at you.

Darkness. Silence. Pressure.

_Hunger_.

So hungry. So thirsty. So alone. Why is it alone? Why is no one there? Why is no one coming? Why is _no one coming?_

So _hungry_.

Can’t move. Can’t see. Can’t hear. Too dark, too quiet. There’s something pressing _down_ , so heavy. Can’t even shift. Can’t _breathe_. All alone. It has been alone for so long. So long. So hungry. Why is no one coming?

Suddenly movement. Shaking. Trembling. The pressure shifts, changes. There is noise, loud and terrible. The world itself shatters.

Then silence again. Stillness. But it is different. The pressure is gone.

There is light. It is dim, faint, far above. But it is there.

So hungry.

Glowing eyes appear in the darkness, looking up towards the light. It is so very hungry.

Taloned claws sink into stone, and slowly it begins to climb.


	2. When I See You Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I (Ikira) am so sorry for the delay on this one guys! I really thought I'd be able to finish this sooner, before my life got really hectic with finals and moving and all sorts of personal issues. But it's ready now, and there's a rough draft of the whole fic finished so the chapters should come much more quickly from now on. I hope it's worth the wait!

Hiro looked out over the passing landscape, fighting back the urge to sigh _again_. He’d already been called a swooning victorian maiden by GoGo about five minutes ago, to the rest of the team’s amusement, and he wasn’t interested in seeing what new creative insult she’d come up with. He was seriously starting to regret upgrading their comms so that they had enough range to communicate over a hundred miles. He’d originally kept the comms open so he could keep tabs on the team he was leaving behind as they continued to help with relief efforts in Bodegawa, but if they were going to keep teasing him he was going to turn the comms off. He couldn’t help it, he was _bored_!

Honestly, he never thought he’d be able to say something like that while flying on Baymax’s back at full speed, the wind whistling by his head and over his helmet, tugging at him strongly enough that if it wasn’t for his electromag hand and foot holds, he would have been ripped away into the open sky long ago. It was just that out here, in the countryside between San Fransokyo and the small town of Bodegawa, there was really nothing to look at or do. Baymax was flying in a straight line headed back to the city, with nothing to dodge around and no loop-de-loops to keep things interesting, and after the first ten minutes of watching the world below go by, all of it monotonous green and brown with the occasional tiny farmhouse to break things up, Hiro was thoroughly sick of it. He’d much rather zoom through the skyscrapers and bridges of San Fransokyo any day.

But hey, at least he wasn’t driving back like the rest of the team. At their current flight speed, they’d be back to San Fransokyo within the hour, hopefully long before Aunt Cass noticed his absence and started to worry. But until they got back, Hiro was stuck with being _bored_.

He absently glanced over at Baymax’s left wing, where he could sense Tadashi’s ghost hanging on, but almost immediately turned away again. No point in trying to talk to his brother to alleviate the boredom, it would essentially be like talking to himself since he still couldn’t see or hear Tadashi, no matter how much he tried. And he had _tried_.

Even after months of training with Mochi to harness his medium powers, he still couldn’t do anything more than sense where Tadashi was standing, which was completely unfair, and slightly concerning. He’d started seeing and hearing other ghosts around the city about a month back, and when they’d realized that there was an actual medium in town, they’d started flocking to him in droves. So far he’d handled the attention well, most of the ghosts asking simple favours that Hiro was happy to grant, such as returning a lost item to the ghosts’ families or helping the spirits to pass on. There was the occasional more aggressive ghost, but it was nothing Mochi couldn’t handle if Hiro got overwhelmed. All in all, Hiro was feeling pretty good about his role as San Fransokyo’s medium. The only downside was that he couldn’t see Tadashi yet.

Mochi kept saying it would come with time, but Hiro had seen the way the Nekomata’s face had pinched with worry whenever he thought Hiro wasn’t looking. Something was wrong, Hiro knew it. But unfortunately he didn’t know what to do about it, so with a growl, he pushed those upsetting thoughts away to focus on at a later date.

Instead, Hiro let his mind wander to other things as the endless rolling hills and fields passed by below. It had been about three months since their confrontation of the Onryo, though sometimes he still thought it had been only yesterday. Since then, the team had really gotten into their roles as defenders of the city, both on the regular and supernatural sides of things, to Hiro’s surprise. He knew they had originally only agreed to his crazy plan to keep an eye on him, and to gain justice for Tadashi, and he expected that once it was all over they’d give up their suits and settle back into regular lives. But they’d all surprised him. Well, all of them but Fred. Hiro would have been more surprised if the comic book-loving young man _hadn’t_ wanted to continue being superheroes. Secretly Hiro was very glad they’d all decide to stick with him. He didn’t know if he’d have been able to keep this up alone.

Not that he would truly be alone. Baymax would obviously do whatever it took to keep Hiro safe and healthy, even if that meant helping him fight crime on both sides of the veil. Hiro could admit that the nurse robot had proven himself invaluable to the team over and over since they’d taken up superhero work. More importantly, he’d proven himself a good friend, and now Hiro couldn’t imagine his life before the soft and squishy robot waddled into it.

And, of course, there was Tadashi.

Hiro glanced over at the wing again despite his best efforts not to. He couldn’t help it though. Through everything the team had experienced, Tadashi had been right by their side, unseen but present. He usually just watched over them when they were facing regular human criminals, as the team had decided early on that they’d do their best not to mix the two worlds if they could help it, but whenever they confronted supernatural threats, Tadashi was ready to possess Hiro at a moment’s notice, turning the brothers into a force to be reckoned with.

And the supernatural community had noticed. Hiro lost count of the times he’d walked around San Fransokyo at night, working on his new powers, only to have some creature or spirit run up to him and thank him for his work. He didn’t admit it to anyone, but those moments made him feel so warm inside. He was helping people. Just like Tadashi had wanted to do. Just like Tadashi had wanted _him_ to do.

His thoughts were treading towards dangerous waters again, so Hiro quickly shook his head to clear it. Enough thinking, all it seemed to be doing was making him sad, so with a growl, he tapped the side of his helmet to open a private comm channel to Baymax so the rest of the team couldn’t hear him.

“Hey Baymax, what’s our ETA to home?” he asked his flying companion, his voice raised a little even though he knew Baymax would be able to hear him clearly. Beneath his knees, he felt Baymax hum a little as his processors started running calculations on top of controlling his flight. Sounded like Baymax needed some updates, his memory was probably getting a bit full.

“We are estimated to reach the city limits in precisely...twenty two point five minutes,” Baymax reported pleasantly. “We should reach the Lucky Cat Cafe within...nine point three minutes after.”

“Hmmm,” Hiro murmured to himself, looking at the clock in the corner of his helmet’s HUD and doing a quick bit of mental math. “That’ll be right around the time I told Aunt Cass we’d be back from that ‘school trip’. Perfect. She shouldn’t suspect anything as long as we land a few blocks away and walk home. I’ll just tell her the bus dropped me off at the corner.”

Baymax turned his head slightly to look at Hiro over his shoulder. “Hiro,” he began, but Hiro already knew what he was going to say, and quickly cut him off.

“No, Baymax. I’m not telling her, and that’s final.”

Baymax looked for a moment like he was going to argue, but then without another word he turned back around to focus once more on flying. Hiro let out a relieved sigh.

They’d had this discussion over and over, with Tadashi chiming in on occasion through Baymax’s chest screen, and Hiro wasn’t going to budge on this. Aunt Cass knew absolutely nothing about what he and the others were up to, nor did she know about Tadashi, and that’s the way Hiro wanted to keep it. What they did was fun and for a good cause, of course, but it was also very dangerous. If Aunt Cass knew what they were up to, she might be put in danger herself, or worse, she might try to stop them.

Besides, after years of having to raise two genius boys who were far too fond of building robots out of whatever they could find lying around the house, Hiro figured any more stress on his poor Aunt might finally drive her to eating the entire cafe’s stock, and he refused to be responsible for that.

That’s why when an earthquake had hit the nearby town of Bodegawa and Big Hero 6 had gone to help with relief efforts, Hiro had told her that SFIT was holding an overnight field trip to the Exploratorium and the new robotics exhibit so that she wouldn’t miss him while the team was gone for a few days. He’d even had Fred help him write up a permission slip to convince her, even though he didn’t think anyone outside of high school used permission slips anymore. Still, she’d bought it, or at least Hiro was pretty sure she had, and they’d been safe to fly out to Bodegawa and help. The only problem was it meant Hiro had to be back by a certain time so that Aunt Cass wouldn’t get suspicious, and that meant leaving the others early. Still, the team had been understanding, and they’d been confident that they would be able to finish their work even without Hiro and Baymax, and so the pair had flown off, headed for home. It had all been a pretty complicated ruse to keep Aunt Cass in the dark, but as long as she didn’t find out, Hiro was okay with putting in some extra effort.

Rather than give Baymax the chance to bring it up again, Hiro turned his comms back to the team channel, just in time to hear Wasabi, Honey Lemon, and GoGo groaning. Hiro smiled beneath his helmet. That meant Fred had started up with the puns again.

“ _…no guys, I swear, I’m really_ rocking _at this_ ,” Fred announced to the others while he presumably worked his way through the rubble. Wasabi groaned again, and GoGo snapped at Fred to get back to work, but Hiro could tell the English major was on a roll.

“ _Don’t be like that, GoGo. That last one was a real_ gem!”

“ _That one wasn’t even relevant to the situation!_ ” Wasabi cried out. “ _There are no gemstones involved in this cleanup!_ ”

Fred, however, would not be deterred. “ _Yeah, sorry, guess I hit_ rock-bottom _there. Hopefully the next few are up to_ slate.”

More groaning. Hiro could hear GoGo and Wasabi talking over each other, threatening and pleading Fred to stop respectively, however there was a worrying silence on Honey Lemon’s end.

Hiro was about to call out to her by name, when he heard her grunt quietly over the comms, and then let out a little giggle. “ _Hey guys!_ ” she called, trying to get the team’s attention. After a pause where Hiro assumed they all looked over at her, she giggled again. “ _Don’t be so down in the dirt! I think Fred’s jokes are rock-solid!_ ”

There was a moment of stunned silence. Then, GoGo found her words. “ _Are you kidding me right now?_ ” she asked flatly. It was bad enough that Fred couldn’t stop the horrible puns, there was no way they could deal with Honey and Fred in a pun-off.

There was another pause, and then Honey Lemon spoke again, her voice strained like she could barely hold onto her laughter. “ _I schist you not,_ ” she announced.

As one the team, including Hiro, burst out laughing. They couldn’t help it, even if the puns were terrible, the combination of being overtired and hearing it from _Honey Lemon_ was enough to send them all into hysterics. Hiro was once again grateful for his electromag grips, because he was laughing so hard he wasn’t sure he would have been able to hang on otherwise.

At first, the noise didn’t really register to him. There were so many other sounds, the team’s voices on the comms, the wind rushing past, the roar of Baymax’s rocket boots, that the noise was almost lost beneath it all. But there was something about it that was both incredibly familiar and yet novel, that it took Hiro a moment to even realize where it was coming from. Then, all at once, it hit him, and he immediately slapped his hand against his helmet to silence the team comms.

And there it was. Barely audible over the wind, but still bright and strong. It was laughter. But more importantly, it was _Tadashi’s_ laughter.

Hiro’s breath caught in his throat. Even though he hadn’t heard Tadashi’s voice in months, Hiro still knew it as well as he knew his own face, as familiar as breathing. There was no mistaking it. He fought down his first instinct to just rip his helmet off so there would be less between his ears and Tadashi’s voice, knowing that would only make the wind louder. His whole body was tense as a bowstring, his ears straining to hear anything more. He was breathing heavily enough that it echoed inside his helmet, so he quickly sucked in his air and held it. Even still his pulse pounded in his ears, impossibly loud.

Tadashi must have registered Hiro’s alarm, because the laughter quickly trailed off. For a moment, it was silent other than the rushing wind, and Hiro wanted to cry out in frustration. No! he’d finally been making some progress! He groaned in disappointment

But then, he could faintly hear the sound of rustling fabric. He turned up his medium senses to max, even though he knew from experience it would give him a headache later, and the faint feeling of Tadashi beside him solidified enough that Hiro could tell his brother was shifting closer, probably checking him over for injuries and trying to figure out what was wrong.

“Hiro? What happened?”

Hiro drew in a short, sharp breath, his eyes going wide. The laughter he might have been able to excuse as wishful thinking, but _that_ was no trick of the wind. He’d _definitely_ just heard Tadashi’s voice. His eyes stayed fixed straight ahead though, focusing on the back of Baymax’s helmet with all of the intensity of a laser. His heart was pounding in his chest hard enough that surely Baymax’s scanners would pick up on it soon, and he could feel his breathing becoming irregular. He didn’t dare look to his side, terrified of what he’d see…or _wouldn’t_ see.

But then Tadashi kept _talking_ , to him, to Baymax, to himself. He was sounding more and more concerned, and Hiro could tell that if he didn’t answer his brother soon he’d go into full mother hen mode. Thankfully at that very moment, Hiro spotted the tell-tale glitter of skyscrapers in the distance.

“Baymax,” he snapped, tapping the robot on the shoulder for good measure, “take us down to the first safe rooftop you see. We need to land _now_.”

Baymax looked back at Hiro, and then over at Tadashi. His sensors must have picked up that _something_ was wrong, so he simply nodded and poured more power into his rocket boots, changing his trajectory slightly for their new landing pad.

The rest of the flight into the city felt like an eternity to Hiro. Tadashi had initially kept talking, mostly to himself, but eventually he’d gone quiet when he’d realized he could do nothing but wait. At least Hiro _hoped_ that he’d just gone quiet. He didn’t know what he’d do if he found out his powers had finally kicked in enough to hear Tadashi, only for them to give out again right before Hiro could check.

He barely dared to breathe as Baymax set down on the nearest empty rooftop on the edge of the city. Almost before they’d touched ground, Hiro was already disengaging his magnets, dropping to the concrete a bit harder than he meant to and almost collapsing on his suddenly weak legs. Baymax was quick enough to grab him and steady him though, thankfully.

Taking a deep breath, Hiro removed his helmet. He could feel twin stares on his face, from both Baymax and Tadashi, but he made sure that his breathing was under control before he dared look up at either of them.

Baymax was right in front of him, holding him up, and tilting his head at Hiro questioningly.

“I’m okay, bud,” Hiro quickly reassured him. “Just...medium stuff.”

“Medium stuff?” Tadashi repeated from behind him, and his voice was enough to make Hiro’s breath hitch. So he _could_ still hear him. But then, maybe that meant…

Slowly, ever so slowly, Hiro started to turn around. It felt like the whole world had gone silent, even the wind, waiting for this one moment that was so long in coming. Finally, Hiro lost his patience, and just spun around all at once.

And there he was.

Tadashi.

At first, Hiro had to squint to see him. He was fuzzy around the edges, and he seemed to flicker in the air like a candle flame. Hiro could almost pass it off as a mirage created by the hot air rising from the dark asphalt of the roof, a trick of his imagination brought on by his wishful thinking. But then the haze stepped closer, and the image started to solidify.

Tadashi faded in like someone was playing with an opacity filter, at first so pale that Hiro almost couldn’t see him, but slowly gaining colour. He was still translucent enough that Hiro could see the sky through his chest, but slowly he gained enough definition that Hiro could finally make him out, enough to let Hiro know that it wasn’t an illusion or a trick of the light. And then Tadashi was there, standing before him and looking exactly the way he had the day he’d died, aside from his missing hat and the three little hitodama flames floating around his head like little birds.

There was a moment of stillness. He could see his brother looking him over with a concerned expression, clearly checking him for injuries. It was something so familiar, just like Tadashi used to do every night after he’d dragged Hiro home from bot fighting, too angry to actually speak, but too worried to just let Hiro go to bed without comment. Hiro could feel his eyes starting to water as Tadashi approached. It was all so similar that Hiro could almost ignore Tadashi’s hitodama, could almost pretend that he couldn’t see the rooftop through his brother’s translucent body.

“Hiro? What - ” Tadashi called out again, and then he suddenly drew up short, his eyes darting over Hiro’s face. Hiro knew the moment Tadashi understood, because his brother’s face went slack, his jaw dropping open and his eyes going wide with wonder.

“ _Hiro?_ ” he repeated, his voice sounding much more choked up now. His hand rose, shaking slightly, and reaching out.

“ _Tadashi,_ ” Hiro sobbed, his throat growing tight, but there was a happy smile on his face. Sure, he might be crying a bit, but those were happy tears. And really, who could blame him. Finally, _finally_ he could see his brother again. After _months_ of waiting. Hiro couldn’t have kept the grin off of his face if you’d paid him. He reached his own hand out, instinctively curling it into a fist, just like they’d always done.

Tadashi noticed, and followed suit, his own face wet with tears. But he was grinning even wider than Hiro, so wide his eyes were squeezing shut. He brought his fist up level with Hiro’s, lining them up perfectly.

“Hey, little brother,” he greeted quietly, his fist reaching out to bump against Hiro’s. “I - ”

Their fists never connected.

One moment Tadashi was standing in front of him, faded but _there_ , where Hiro could _see_ him and _hear_ him, and the next there was a dark shadow, a powerful gust of wind, and then the rooftop was empty. Hiro stared blankly at the spot his brother had been standing not even a second ago, all of his senses screaming at him, but his mind just couldn’t catch up fast enough to realize what had happened. He was frozen, stuck trying to compute what had happened and drawing a blank. Tadashi was just...gone.

But then he heard his brother scream, and everything slammed back into motion. His head snapped up, searching for the source of the noise even as he threw out a net of his supernatural senses, trying to locate Tadashi that way as well. At the same time, he was already running towards Baymax, who must have detected that something had gone wrong, because his wings were already released and his rocket boots were warming up. Hiro slammed his helmet back onto his head with one hand as the other latched onto its magnetic pad, and then they were airborne, Baymax tracking Tadashi’s signature with his specterscope.

Hiro’s eyes darted left and right, straining with all of his power to try to spot Tadashi. “There!” he shouted down at Baymax, pointing a bit to their left. He could just barely see Tadashi’s arm poking out of the strange mass of shadows flying through the air, flailing like he was struggling against whatever held him. That was good, Hiro decided. That meant he was okay, he could still fight back...right?

“Hurry, Baymax!” Hiro urged the robot on, pressing himself closer against Baymax’s back to lower wind resistance. In response Baymax pushed even more power into his rocket boots, bringing them up to speeds just below the sound barrier. Normally they would never travel this fast in the city proper, but normally they weren’t trying to rescue Tadashi from the grip of some mysterious shadow creature. Now was not the time for caution.

And yet still, it wasn’t enough.

“Hiro. I am detecting that at our current speed, we will not catch up to the creature,” Baymax reported.

“Can you go faster?” Hiro demanded.

“Not safely.”

Growling, Hiro grabbed at his helmet in frustration. He didn’t have time to enter the override codes he would need to convince Baymax to break his speed limitations. Running his hands over his fins, he started thinking. Well alright then, if they couldn’t outrace whatever it was, maybe they could out _maneuver_ it.

Hiro started looking around desperately, comparing the nearest buildings with his mental map of the city. He’d been getting to know it well between flying on Baymax and travelling to help supernatural creatures, and so he quickly could identify where they were and, more importantly, what their next step would be.

He glanced ahead at the shadow creature and Tadashi, making sure whatever it was wasn’t about to change direction.

“Okay buddy, at the next skyscraper, pull back a bit, let it get a bit ahead of us. Then, hang a sharp left just past the statue on that sushi house where the Tanuki like to hang out, you know the one?”

“Yes,” Baymax confirmed.

“Okay. Let’s do this, Baymax.”

The city passed by in a blur as they sped between the buildings, Hiro calling out directions and Baymax following them as smoothly as if they were of one mind. They’d long lost sight of the creature, but that was okay. Hiro had already run all the mental calculations, and he knew this city. He knew _exactly_ where they needed to go.

Sure enough, just as Baymax flew below one of the many Torii dotting the city, a dark shadow passed overhead, just barely missing them as it swooped over the red-painted gate. The thing let out a terrible cry in surprise, and tried to jerk back, but Baymax shifted his rocket boots so they were pointing straight down. Boy and robot soared straight up at the creature, Baymax’s fist leading the way, ready to deliver a devastating punch to knock the creature down.

But it _dodged_. Hiro almost couldn’t believe his eyes. One minute the creature had been hovering like a dense blob, with Tadashi trapped somewhere in the middle, the next it had stretched out, elongating like a serpent, and with a sinuous motion it moved out of Baymax’s way. The robot went shooting past, not prepared for missing, and nearly collided with a magical carpet flying by overhead. Hiro screamed, the passengers screamed, and only Baymax’s quick reaction time saved them from a collision.

There was a few moments of chaos as the Djinn driving the carpet shouted at them, and Hiro tried to make peace while apologizing profusely. The Djinn shot him a dirty look, as did all of his passengers, but they seemed satisfied enough because they flew away without further comment

They fell back to a hover, and Hiro immediately started looking around frantically. But it was too late. There was no sign of the creature or Tadashi anywhere, and even with Hiro’s senses at max, he couldn’t detect any sign of them.

Tadashi was gone.

“Baymax,” Hiro cried out, refusing to give up. They still had one other method of finding supernatural types. “Quick! Fly up to that wind turbine, we need to scan the city for Tadashi and that creature.”

Baymax rushed to comply, his thrusters going on full. The pair shot up into the sky, heading for the highest wind turbine they could see. Baymax landed on the painted metal surface much more roughly than his usual landings, but they didn’t have time for grace. The robot didn’t wait for Hiro’s directions once they’d stopped, immediately firing up his scanners and searching the city.

On his back, Hiro bit his lip and barely held himself still, waiting with bated breath for Baymax to finish scanning, and announce which direction Tadashi and the creature had gone. He waited. And waited. And _waited_. Every second longer it took for Baymax to scan, his heart fell lower and lower in his chest. Scanning _never_ took this long.

Finally, after almost a full minute of searching, Baymax let out an angry-sounding beep. “Scan complete,” Baymax announced. “There were no matches found for Tadashi or the unknown subject.”

“ _What?!_ ” Hiro shrieked in disbelief. “That’s impossible! Scan again! Widen the search this time!”

“My scanner has a range of roughly seventy five miles. I have scanned the entire San Fransokyo area. No results were found.”

Hiro let out a string of words that would have gotten his ear nearly pulled off if Aunt Cass was around to hear him. “Fine, we’ll just search the old fashioned way, then,” he said, adjusting his grip on Baymax’s shoulders. “We’ll start where we last saw them, and just fly in a grid pattern until we find them.”

“It will take several hours to cover the entire city, even at our highest speed,” Baymax pointed out.

“I don’t care,” Hiro responded. “We’re going to find Tadashi.”

Baymax didn’t argue after that. Instead he simply waited until he was sure Hiro was firmly attached to his back, and then walked towards the edge of the wind turbine. He tipped off of it, letting his wings flip open once more, and then let his thrusters kick in. He swooped down a bit before levelling off, already heading for the last place they’d seen Tadashi.

But suddenly there was a worrying beep from both Hiro and Baymax’s helmets, followed up by a weak spluttering sound from Baymax’s rocket boots.

“Oh no,” Baymax said simply.

“Oh _no_!” Hiro repeated.

That was all the warning they had before Baymax’s rocket boots ran out of power. There was a moment where the pair hung there in the air, weightless, and then gravity caught up to them and they started to fall. Hiro let out a short scream, clinging tightly to Baymax’s armour as the ground started rushing up towards them far too quickly for his liking. Baymax was trying to use his wings to control their descent, but without the thrust from the rocket boots, he wasn’t able to do much more than shakily glide and hope they didn’t hit anything. Once again skyscrapers blurred past them, but this time there was no plan and Hiro was just hanging on for dear life.

He saw a temple coming up straight ahead of them, but there was absolutely nothing he or Baymax could do to avoid hitting it. All he could do was close his eyes and hope that his armour would take the brunt of the fall.

He was just bracing himself for impact when he felt Baymax shudder beneath him. There was the faint groan of tearing armour, and then they were rising just a bit, just enough to clear the temple with a foot to spare.

When they weren’t dashed to pieces against the temple’s wall, Hiro dared to look up as they slowed down, and was shocked to see a scaled belly directly above him. The dragon that had caught them grunted as it flared its wings, slowly bringing them to a halt and setting them down in a small park nearby. Once they’d landed, it dropped Baymax heavily, jarring Hiro enough that his teeth clacked together, but a much nicer landing than what they would have accomplished on their own.

Hiro just sat a moment and breathed, adrenaline shooting through his system and making him shaky. Once he was sure he could walk, he disengaged the magnets holding him to Baymax’s back and dropped to the ground. Baymax himself slowly rose to his feet, his armour in shambles, but his soft body thankfully in once piece. Hiro had spare armour for Baymax in the garage, that was easy to replace. He did not have a spare Baymax.

Once he’d finished checking Baymax over for damage, he looked up at the dragon. It was one he was familiar with, as he’d previously traded a batch of his Aunt Cass’ pastries to it in exchange for scales and claws to arm Fred with, and they’d maintained a good relationship ever since. Now, though, he was pretty sure he owed this dragon his life.

Shakily, he walked over to the dragon, his legs not wanting to support him fully. Thankfully the dragon saw him struggling, and moved its long swan-like neck closer.

“Thank you,” he said unsteadily as he reached the dragon’s side. “You totally just saved my life, I think. I just...thank you.” He bowed then, respectfully, as Tadashi had taught him to do when they’d both been much younger. He remembered Mochi telling him about dragons, and how they were friendly enough if you showed them the proper respect, but could be easily offended. And Hiro did _not_ have time right now to deal with an angered dragon. It felt like a timer had started up in the back of his head, tracking how long Tadashi had been taken.

The dragon gave him an amused look. “No need for such formalities,” it teased him gently with a shake of its great scaley head. “It’s no trouble. I just happened to be flying by and saw you were in need of help.”

“Still, thanks,” Hiro repeated as he rose out of his bow. “We’d be pancakes if not for you.”

“Of course,” the dragon said with a knowing smile. “After all, I can’t let anything happen to you. You’re more important to this city than you know. As a medium, you play a key role in maintaining balance. I was just doing what any of us would have done, to keep you safe.”

“Buuuuut,” the dragon drawled, a sly look on its face. “If you happen to want to offer me more of those Cats Paw pastries in thanks, I would not object.”

Hiro smiled and laughed weakly. “I think I can manage that,” he told the dragon, before his expression once more turned serious as something occurred to him. If the dragon had been nearby when Hiro and Baymax were flying through, maybe it had spotted Tadashi! 

“Oh, man, wait a second. When you were flying through the city, did you happen to see a large, shadowy creature flying by at high speeds? I don’t know what the heck it was, but it kidnapped my brother. Please, have you seen anything?”

“Your brother?” the dragon gasped, before its eyes narrowed to slits. “Something _kidnapped_ your brother? But who would...no one would _dare_...your _brother_...” The dragon snarled something then in a language that Hiro didn’t understand, sparks flying from its jaws, before it quickly settled. “No, I am sorry to say I didn’t see it,” it told him sadly.

Hiro’s heart plummeted again. He had hoped...god, where could Tadashi have gone?

“But this is very concerning,” the dragon continued. “There are none in this city that I know of who would dare harm your brother, and if something new has arrived perhaps we should be worried. I’ll send out the word, and I’ll ask my fellow dragons to keep an eye out for this creature. Don’t worry, if we see it, we’ll capture it.”

“ _Please_ ,” Hiro begged the dragon, feeling tears growing in his eyes. He’d _finally_ been able to see Tadashi, _finally_. And not even a second later his brother had been ripped away from him. He wanted to scream in frustration and disbelief. “I...I don’t know...We tried searching...I can’t even _sense_ him anymore…”

The dragon seemed to realize he was getting far too upset, because it hushed him gently and bumped him with its head. The force nearly knocked him onto his backside, but he managed to keep himself upright by grabbing onto its snout. The dragon made mournful noises as Hiro took the opportunity to bury his face in its scales for a moment and just remember to _breathe_.

When he felt like he was more under control again, he stepped back, wiping at his face with the back of his gloves. The dragon thankfully didn’t comment about his red eyes.

“I speak on behalf of all the dragons in my clan when I say this; we will do everything we can to help you get your brother back,” the dragon told him seriously.

Hiro sniffled a bit, but nodded. “Thank you,” he said again, understanding the weight of that. To have a dragon clan on his side...that would help.

The dragon nodded back to him, and then suddenly drew up short, shooting a bewildered look over Hiro’s shoulder. Hiro started to turn around to look at what had caught the dragon’s attention, only to have his face smushed into a soft white belly that was beeping at him.

“Oh no,” Hiro said flatly, muffled by soft vinyl.

“Heeee!” Baymax said drunkenly. “Healthcare!”

Hiro started shoving at the robot, trying to get him off, but low battery Baymax was a handful on the best days, and Hiro was already pretty tired. With a huff, Hiro just accepted he was going to be hugged whether he liked it or not, and did his best to turn back around to face the dragon once more.

“Having a bit of trouble?” The dragon asked, amusement thick in its voice.

Hiro simply sighed in frustration. “I don’t suppose you could give us a lift home, could you?” he asked hopefully, fluttering his lashes up at the dragon and giving it his best puppy dog eyes.

Just like before, the dragon melted like butter.

+++

Tadashi coughed and spluttered as he was unceremoniously dumped to the ground without warning. He hadn’t been expecting the sudden drop, and therefore he’d landed flat on his face, getting a mouthful of dirt in the process. He quickly started spitting it all up, groaning in pain and disgust. What had just happened?

One minute he’d been standing on a rooftop, _finally_ communicating with Hiro the way he’d been yearning to since he’d first died, and the next there had been a great shadow swooping down on him. He’d been trapped in pitch blackness and what felt like scales against his skin for what felt like an hour, though it could have just as easily been minutes, and no matter how hard he’d struggled he couldn’t get free. Even his hitodama had no effect on whatever had grabbed him. What _had_ it been? And where was he?

Slowly Tadashi pulled himself to his feet, glancing around in curiosity. He seemed to be at the bottom of a deep and narrow crevice, the walls of stone rising up so high above his head he could barely see daylight above. Where he had landed was a few feet wide, enough for him to sit comfortably with his legs splayed out, but in either direction it narrowed so much he didn’t think he’d be able to squeeze through if he was still human. Above the fissure seemed to be very rough and jagged, but he couldn’t see much detail in the dim lighting.

Frowning, he poured a bit of energy into his hitodama to make them grow, hoping to shed more light on the area. The hitodama obeyed quickly, swelling in size and slowly drifting up higher over his head to spread their light further. The stones and walls were most likely the usual dusty red and brown of this area, but in the light of his hitodama everything took on an unnatural greenish tinge. If he wasn’t so used to their light, Tadashi might have been unnerved.

He might have also been unnerved by the skeleton lying next to him if he wasn’t already dead himself. As it was, he merely gasped when he spotted it, shifting over so he could study it more closely. He wasn’t a medium like Hiro, but he was dead, and it had given him a few senses that he’d been learning to use. For example, as he looked over the skeleton, he could tell that it was completely empty, no spirit around nearby belonging to it that he could sense, and that it had been down here for a _long_ time. Maybe someone had fallen into the fissure from above? Pretty likely, considering the state of the skeleton. Its bones were covered in cracks, smashed in some places like it had been impacted by something hard. Like stone.

He shook his head sadly at the sight. There was a good chance that no one ever found out what happened to this person, considering their body was still down here. Normally this would have probably resulted in a spirit Hiro would need to help to reach their final rest, but apparently this spirit had managed to pass on by themselves if they were nowhere nearby. Too bad, he could have asked the other spirit for help.

After carefully looking around the rest of the bottom of the crevice, Tadashi concluded that there was nothing else there but rocks. Nothing useful, anyways, so he pushed his hitodama upwards, hoping they’d reveal an easy route to climb out.

A face loomed out of the darkness.

Tadashi screamed and scrambled back, though he couldn’t get very far in the narrow space. The face loomed closer, more of it becoming visible as it came into the light, and Tadashi shrank back even further. The light was not making it better, if anything it made things worse.

The face was almost human, but it was gaunt and pale, like a person who had been starved almost to death. In place of a mouth, though, it had a hooked beak like a bird of prey, the serrated edges stained red with blood. Its sightless sunken eyes reflected the faint light from his hitodama like mirrors, burning like embers and reminding him uncomfortably of the Onryo. The body beyond was hard to make out past the terrible face, but Tadashi got the impression of glittering black scales and rustling wings.

It didn’t help that it just kept coming _closer_. Tadashi was already pressed as far back against the stone walls of the crevice as he could get, but the face was now so close he could smell its rank breath and feel it rustling his hair. He choked down the frightened whine that was trying to build up in his throat. His instincts were screaming at him that whatever this thing was, he did _not_ want it near him.

Thankfully it stopped when its beak was just inches from his chest. But then it just kept _staring_ at him, watching him like it was a hawk and he a mouse. Tadashi was not liking where this was going. Still, while he was pretty much completely sure at this point that this was the creature that had kidnapped him, it didn’t seem to be doing anything to him other than just staring at him now. Maybe it was friendly?

With that in mind, he lifted his hand in a small wave, mimicking Baymax’s usual motions. “Uh, hi there,” he greeted the creature weakly. “What’s, uh. What’s up?”

The creature stared at him for a moment more. Then, it opened its terrible beak wide. And _screamed_.

Tadashi’s hands slapped against the sides of his head, trying to block out the horrible noise, but it was like a banshee’s scream, there was no escaping it. It felt like knives were being stabbed into his head through his ears, and it sent waves of pain down his spine all the way to his toes. He couldn’t hear anything over the horrible noise, but he was pretty sure _he_ was screaming in pain. It felt like the earth itself was shaking with the sound. And it just kept _going_.

When it finally ended, when everything finally went blissfully silent, Tadashi came to curled up in a ball on his side with his hands pressed over his head and tears running down his cheeks. His hitodama had dimmed to tiny candleflames, and he could feel little cuts in the skin above his ears where his fingernails had dug in enough to draw blood. His head was pounding, and he could still hear the echoes of the scream rattling around between his ears. Or maybe that was just the echo through the crevice. He slowly, tentatively pulled himself upright, shooting a terrified glance over his shoulder at the creature.

It was watching him again, though now he thought it looked almost satisfied. As if he’d reacted exactly as it had hoped. It waited until he was fully upright before swinging its head closer again. Tadashi fliched back, waiting for it to scream at him again.

It spoke instead, catching Tadashi off guard. Its voice was powerful and booming, but there were many layers to it, like it spoke with several voices at once. It was not helping Tadashi’s headache at all. “ **You will help me** ,” the creature said, no, _demanded_.

“W-what?” Tadashi shook his head, struggling to clear the ringing noise in his ears so he could hear better. “Help you? With what?”

The creature tilted its head at an angle that made its neck look broken. Somehow the beak curved up in a smile. “ **Revenge** ,” it told him simply.

But Tadashi knew enough about spirits and revenge after watching after the whole Callaghan fiasco, and he knew he wanted no part of it. Someone always got hurt when spirits wanted revenge. He quickly shook his head.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m not sure who or what you are, or what it is you want revenge for, or even if I _could_ help you, but my answer is no.” He carefully climbed to his feet, and started inching his way backwards, towards the narrowing of the fissure. The creature was a lot bigger than him, he might be able to squeeze through and escape, so long as this thing wasn’t too fast. But he kept his eye on it the whole time, not wanting to expose his back to it. He might be dead, and therefore impossible to kill, but he’d fought other supernatural creatures before, and he knew that they could seriously hurt him. “Sorry. Can’t help you.”

The creature didn’t like that answer though. Its eyes narrowed to slits, and then it suddenly shot forward. Tadashi yelped and was forced to dive to the ground to avoid getting skewered on its beak. This threw him further into the crevice, though, and farther away from the narrowing. The creature’s face turned towards him again, its beak opening threateningly.

“I’m sorry!” he quickly shouted, hoping to cut off that horrible scream before it started. “What would you even want me to do?” It couldn’t hurt to ask, right? It’s not like he was actually agreeing to help the thing.

The creature’s beak thankfully closed, and its eyes stopped glaring at him so intently. It was still curving its long snake-like neck around him so that he couldn’t run though, leaving him feeling more than a little claustrophobic. It made a strange sound deep in its throat, a hiss mixed with what sounded faintly like laughter, and the strange almost-smirk returned.

“ **I want revenge,** ” it repeated. “ **You will help me get it. _Medium_**.”

“M-medium?” Tadashi gasped. “But I’m not a…” He trailed off. The creature’s face was getting closer again. Too close.

“ **You will help me, or else…** ”

It’s beak opened wide, and once again all Tadashi knew was pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well hey, y'all said you wanted Hiro to see Tadashi again, right? Ta da! :D


	3. Nowhere to Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, this chapter's a bit shorter than normal, and no art, but we figured it was better to post sooner than make you all wait so long again. The next part will be longer! Enjoy!

Hiro sighed and threw his helmet on top of the pile of the rest of his suit. Baymax’s armour had already been tossed into the scrap bin, most of it unsalvageable, but the spare set was still in good condition so Hiro didn’t bother starting the 3D printers just yet. Besides, he was _exhausted_. After a long morning of helping move rubble and carry injured people to safety in Bodegawa, he’d already been pretty tired, but then there had been everything with Tadashi and the creature and the near-crash, and his energy levels were now zero.

So with a huff, he left Baymax charging in the garage and slowly dragged his way up the stairs, his mind only focused on thoughts of his nice soft bed. He felt like he could sleep for a week. The door leading from the garage to the cafe’s kitchen seemed to weigh a hundred pounds as he shoved it open with a groan. God, he couldn’t wait to sleep.

But he’d forgotten one tiny thing.

“Hiro Hamada,” Aunt Cass growled.

Hiro yelped and whirled around, his tiredness suddenly replaced by fear. His aunt was standing in the middle of the kitchen, hands on her hips and a very angry look on her face. There was a tray of donuts on the counter next to her, but it looked like a few of them had been sampled.

“Uh, hey, Aunt Cass!” Hiro said brightly, fixing what he hoped was a smile on his face, and not a guilty grimace. His eyes darted towards the clock on the wall and he almost choked. Oh god, he’d told her he’d be home _hours_ ago. She was going to _kill_ him.

“Where. Have. You. _Been?_ ” she shouted. “You told me you would be back by five at the _latest!_ I was worried _sick!_ You didn’t call! You wouldn’t pick up when _I_ called! When I contacted Honey Lemon she said that you should have been home already!”

“Wait, you called my friends?” Hiro cut in, startled. Oh gosh, had they told her? Had she figured it out? Was that why she was so mad?

But Aunt Cass only rolled her eyes. “Of _course_ I called them, all of you are practically attached at the hip these days!”

“Hiro,” her tone suddenly got quieter. “I know I haven’t always been...I know I get busy sometimes, with the cafe and all.”

Hiro stiffened. He did _not_ like where this conversation was going. “Aunt Cass…”

“No, it’s okay. I know that...that it was Tadashi who you turned to for most things in the past. Heck, he practically helped me raise you. But...you know I worry about you, right?”

“I...of course I know that, Aunt Cass,” Hiro told her weakly. His shoulders drooped. “I’m sorry. I know I should have called, I just got...distracted.”

Her expression softened a bit. “Just...try to tell me what’s going on next time, okay sweetie?” she asked.

Hiro barely flinched. “Yeah, of course,” he said, the lie tasting bitter on his tongue. “So...does that mean I can go to bed now? I’m pretty tired.”

She huffed out a laugh, shaking her head. “Fine. But you’re still going to work all weekend in the cafe to make it up to me,” she informed him.

“Awww, Aunt Cass,” Hiro groaned good-naturedly. But it was all in good fun. Hiro would gladly work those shifts, not only because he felt he owed Aunt Cass an apology, but also because he was hoping he would run into Mrs Matsuda. Both Mochi and Tadashi talked about how helpful she’d been in the past, and while Hiro still couldn’t see her as anything but a crazy old lady in really revealing clothing, he was hoping she might have some ideas about what had taken Tadashi, and how to find him again.

“G’night Aunt Cass!” Hiro called out as he headed up to bed, leaving her to finish closing down the cafe.

“Good night, Hiro,” she replied, picking up the half-eaten tray of donuts and heading through the curtain separating the cafe’s kitchen from the main room.

Hiro watched her go, a hard ball of guilt growing in his stomach, but he pushed it away and headed up towards his bedroom. He could feel guilty later. For now, he needed to contact the others

+++

“ _Tadashi was **what?!**_ ” GoGo shrieked over the comms, her voice muffled by static because of the distance, but still audible. “ _How the heck did he get kidnapped? We left you two alone for a **day**_!”

Hiro groaned and rubbed at his forehead. He’d expected a reaction like this, though maybe not so loud. It probably didn’t help that it was - he quickly glanced at the clock on the wall of his room - coming up on 2 AM, and the team had been out all day shifting rubble and helping with relief efforts. While he knew they would have been even _more_ pissed at him if he’d waited until the morning to tell them about Tadashi’s abduction, they were probably not too thrilled that he’d woken them up. He was just glad that Wasabi was such a light sleeper and heard him paging their comms.

“I don’t really know what happened, it was all so fast,” Hiro explained tiredly. Even though he hadn’t been working in Bodegawa with them all day, he was tired himself, and he could feel the lateness of the hour deep in his bones. It was a struggle just to keep his eyes open. “Just, I heard him laughing. Guys, I actually _heard_ him.”

The other end of the comms went quiet as each of them let that sink in past their half-asleep minds.

“ _You...really?_ ” Honey Lemon asked, the first to recover. “ _You’re sure?_ ”

“Oh man, I’m absolutely sure,” Hiro laughed quietly. “And that’s not all. I _saw_ him too. Well, sort of. He was kinda fuzzy and see-through, but guys. Guys. He was there. I could actually see him and hear him and oh man, we were so close, he was standing _right there_ and then that _stupid fuc -_ ”

“Hiro,” Baymax quickly cut him off.

Hiro bit down the rest of what he was going to say, swallowing it like the words were a bitter liquid he’d much rather spit out. “So yeah. He was right there, and suddenly he got snatched by some creature I didn’t recognize. Baymax and I chased it halfway across the city, but it managed to shake us, and then Baymax ran out of power.” He decided not to include the part of the story where the two of them had almost fallen to their deaths. They hadn’t, and besides the team was already worried enough about Tadashi, no need to add to it. “So we headed home to recharge.”

“ _Dude, that_ sucks,” Fred groaned. “ _You okay, little man?_ ”

“Yeah,” Hiro assured them. “Just a little tired. I was trying to use my powers a bit too much today, I think.”

“ _Don’t push yourself Hiro,_ ” Honey told him worriedly. “ _We’ll be home as soon as we can_.”

“ _Which will be…?_ ” GoGo asked, presumably speaking to the others. There was a pause where the team muttered among themselves, trying to figure out how soon they could return. Hiro could hear Wasabi’s voice running calculations, the turn of pages, presumably notes the team had made about the extent of the damages. GoGo and Honey were debating between themselves, and Fred sounded like he was on the phone with Heathcliff. Finally Wasabi came back on the comm line.

“ _We just ran the numbers, and Fred looked into how fast we could get a car or a chopper out here to pick us up. Unfortunately there’s too much damage, we wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving just yet if there’s still people that might be trapped, you know?_ ” Though he didn’t say it, Hiro understood what Wasabi was trying to say. Tadashi was already dead, there wasn’t much that could actually hurt him anymore, but the victims of the earthquake weren’t. The team could do so much more to help in Bodegawa than they could searching for Tadashi. Besides, even if they were here, they’d be just as stuck as Hiro without any idea where the creature had gone. It made more sense for the team to stay where they were for now, and return when the job was done.

“ _Listen, Hiro. We’ll be back as soon as we can, okay? Fred says Heathcliff’s got the family chopper on standby, so as soon as we’re done we’ll head straight back to San Fransokyo. We figure it’ll only be, what,_ ” He must have turned to the others, looking for their input, “ _Another two days? Three, tops._ ”

Hiro took a deep breath. Three days. That was…that was okay. That would give him enough time to find the creature and figure out what the heck it was in time for the others to get back and confront it. Who knew, maybe he’d even be able to deal with this alone. Well, alone aside from Baymax.

He leaned back against the soft robot’s legs, ignoring the way the lip of Baymax’s charging station dug into his lower back. He really needed to get around to building Baymax a smaller charging station, something more portable. That could wait until after they got Tadashi back though. Maybe his brother would have some suggestions, ones that Hiro would actually be able to _hear_ now. He smiled at the thought.

“Okay,” he said out loud. “I think that sounds fair. Besides, I still need to find where he went, that’s something you guys can’t really help me with. Just focus on finishing up in Bodegawa and keep me posted on how everything's going, okay?”

“ _Okay. And Hiro?_ ” Honey Lemon called out. Even through the static of the comm, he could still hear the concern in her voice. “ _Be careful? Keep an eye on him for us, Baymax. Make sure he gets some sleep._ ”

“I will ensure that Hiro receives his proper rest cycle,” Baymax assured Honey Lemon with a nod, even if she couldn’t see him. “Hiro is safe with me.”

“ _Thanks Baymax,_ ” came the chorus of voices from the comm from all of the team.

“Hey! Guys, I’m not that bad!” Hiro tried to argue, but his only response was tired laughter. Deciding they’d discussed as much as they would for the evening, Hiro quickly bid the team a good night, and signed off. With a sigh, he pulled the comm earpiece off, tossing it carelessly onto the nearby desk, not caring when it missed and skittered across the floor. He’d find it tomorrow, when it was brighter. For now though, he was absolutely exhausted. It was far past time for bed.

“Alright buddy,” he sighed, laboriously climbing to his feet and stretching his arms above his head. His spine creaked in response. “I’m heading to bed, I’ll wake you up first thing tomorrow so we can start looking.”

“Very well,” Baymax agreed, blinking after Hiro as he started tugging off his clothes, digging his pjs out of their crumpled ball at the end of his bed. “Good night, Hiro.”

“G’night, Baymax,” Hiro yawned, slipping into his sleep pants. He was too tired to bother with the shirt, simply flopping facedown on the bed and sluggishly pulling the covers up over his body. “‘m satisfied with m’care,” he mumbled, already half asleep.

With a quiet beep and the soft sound of escaping air, Baymax collapsed down into his case to rest for the night.

Hiro was far too tired to dream that night, but as he fell asleep he couldn’t help but think he could faintly hear someone screaming from far, far away. He shuddered, and tucked the blanket closer, suddenly very cold.

+++

Tadashi awoke again after who knew how long to darkness. He sat up with a gasp, already flaring up his hitodama to try to shed some light around him, but they responded sluggishly to his thoughts, only rising a few feet above his head and barely glowing any brighter. They were still weakened by the creature’s attacks yesterday. Or whenever it had been.

Groaning, Tadashi pushed himself to his knees. He looked up over his head, but either the creature wasn’t there or it was high up enough that the meager light from his hitodama couldn’t reach it, because he could see nothing above but darkness. It must have been night time then if there was no sunlight to be seen.

With a sigh, Tadashi settled back against the crevice wall to rest. He didn’t dare start trying to climb out until his hitodama could burn a bit more strongly. Even though it wouldn’t kill him if he fell while climbing, it would still suck, and he’d rather be able to see where he was going.

But after an unknown amount of time, Tadashi heard something moving overhead. He nervously checked his hitodama, but they could barely manage to grow larger than an apple, even when he poured all of his focus into them. They wouldn’t be recovered in time. He started frantically looking around for a means to escape. The narrowed end of the crevice was nearby, but he was all turned around now in the darkness, he didn’t know which way to go.

Before he could do anything else, there was a rush of wind, and then something large and heavy impacted against the fissure wall above him. Tadashi ducked as he was suddenly rained on by dirt and rocks, most passing through his incorporeal body, but still leaving him irritated. Then, the monstrous face once again came looming out of the darkness.

“ **Have you thought about your answer, Medium?** ” It demanded, eyes gleaming even in the dim light.

Tadashi carefully faced the creature head on. “For the last time, I am _not_ a _medium!_ I’m _dead_ , okay?”

“ **Do not bore me with your lies, Medium. I can sense your powers. You _will_ help me,** ” it snapped, its head twisting grotesquely to the side so it could study him. “ **Or I will make you suffer**.”

“I’m _not lying!_ I swear!” Tadashi tried to insist, but the creature merely hissed at him, opening its beak threateningly. Tadashi held up a hand placatingly, falling back a bit. “I promise you, I’m not! I was when I was alive, maybe, but I died! I’m sorry, I can’t help you!”

“ ** _Lies! Falsehoods!_ Do you think me such a fool, boy?** ” The creature’s face inched closer. “ **You can’t hide it from me, I can sense your strength. You are a medium, and you _will_ help me.** ”

“I’m _not_ a medium!” Tadashi shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to get through to the creature. “I’m sorry! I can’t help you!”

 _That_ made the creature falter a bit. Its eyes narrowed once more. “ **Fine,** ” it growled. “ **You do not wish to help me? We will see how willing you are after a few days without food or water. Soon you will understand me. Soon you will want to help me.** ”

And with that ominous prediction, the creature suddenly vanished in a swoop of its massive wings. Tadashi ducked his head and braced himself against the downdraft.

When the wind stopped, Tadashi allowed himself to relax a bit. It sounded like the creature really thought he was a human medium, and that it was going to try to starve him out. Well the joke was on it, because he was a ghost and he didn’t need food or water. He’d just wait a bit more until he’d recovered enough for the climb, and then he’d drag himself out of this fissure while the creature was gone and start walking home. Wherever that was. Hopefully the thing hadn’t taken him too far from San Fransokyo. The climb would be tiring enough.

But almost as soon as he thought that, there came a sudden loud crashing sound. Tadashi gasped as the ground around him trembled, but the impact wasn’t strong enough to be an earthquake. He looked up, where the noise seemed to be coming from, and squinted. It was practically impossible to see what was happening up above, but the more he focused, the more he could see. And the more his heart sank.

The creature was dropping giant boulders onto the opening of the crevice, sealing it off. With a curse, Tadashi started climbing. Better to struggle his way up now, before it was completely closed off, and risk falling, rather than wait until he was trapped.

But without his strength and with only the very dim light from his hitodama, it was slow going. He had to struggle to feel his way around for any handholds that he could find, as he couldn’t afford to slip and fall and have to start all over. There were thankfully a few shelves of rock here and there that he could rest on, but the walls for the most part were very smooth, making the climb downright treacherous. And all the while, he’d occasionally hear a rumbling boom and feel the wall quiver beneath him as the creature came back with another massive boulder to drop into place.

Tadashi pushed himself even harder, forcing his hitodama up ahead of himself so he could see how far he had left to climb. The fissure must have been over a hundred feet deep, but Tadashi had been climbing desperately, and he was almost to the top. Sure enough, he could just faintly see starlight above, blinking down at him through the crack above where the creature hadn’t yet closed it off. Grunting with exertion, Tadashi reach up and dug his nails even harder into the walls of the fissure, dragging himself upward inch by painful inch.

He was less than ten feet from the top when suddenly the twinkling stars were replaced by that horrible skull-like face. Tadashi yelped as the creature’s burning eyes suddenly filled his vision, its long serpentine neck allowing it to peak over the edge of the crevice without climbing in. It glared at him, before not-smirking again. It’s beak opened wide.

Pain.

Tadashi fell, though he was unaware of anything other than the horrible pain in his head. He wrapped his arms around his skull, in an effort to protect it from the fall and to also try to hold it together when it felt like that noise was making his brain leak out of his ears. He felt something impact sharply against his elbow as he tumbled, smacking off of the hard rock walls, and suddenly his right arm went limp. He screamed in pain, but it was drowned out by that horrible, _horrible_ sound. It just kept _screaming_ and he just kept _falling_.

When the screaming finally stopped, Tadashi found himself flat on his back, at the bottom of the fissure once more, his breathing ragged, and his broken arm feeling like it was going to fall off. He wasn’t too worried about it though, he would heal eventually. But not in time to try climbing up again.

To punctuate this realization, there was a final, thunderous boom. The creature had dropped the last boulder into place. Tadashi was trapped.

He took a deep, steadying breath and cradled his injured arm close to his side, trying to ignore the way it felt like the shadows were slowly and silently creeping up on him. His hitodama guttered and dimmed.


	4. Soul Searching

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, SpiritusRex was on vay-cay this time around, and we didn't want you guys to go without more of their GORGEOUS art. But they're home now, and we're ready for MORE MEDIUM ADVENTURES! YAAAAAY!

Hiro woke slowly and groggily, feeling like he’d barely got any rest. From the sounds below, it seemed like Aunt Cass was moving around in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. That was probably what had woken him. With a groan, he rolled over, hoping to fall back asleep.

But rolling over brought Tadashi’s side of the room into Hiro’s line of vision, and suddenly the events of yesterday came slamming back into his mind.

“Shi - ” Hiro started to curse and spring out of bed at the same time, but his foot was tangled in the blankets and caught him up. He tripped and fell out of bed, his curse cut short as he crashed to his bedroom floor with a yelp.

Stunned, he just laid there for a moment. “Ow,” he muttered, staring up at the ceiling in a daze. He only half noticed the sound of Baymax inflating on the other side of the room.

He did however notice when Baymax’s head appeared above, blinking down at him. Hiro let out a long groan of pain.

“Good morning, Hiro,” Baymax greeted him pleasantly. “You have fallen.”

Hiro sighed. “Wow, you noticed,” he grumbled, slightly irritable. He hadn’t slept well, and now he’d fallen out of bed, he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with Baymax’s special attention today. “Look, just help me up bud. We’ve got to start looking for Tadashi again as soon as possible, we can’t waste time with your usual schpiel okay?”

Thankfully Baymax understood the urgency in Hiro’s tone, because he chose to forgo his usual line of questions about Hiro’s pain. He did a quick scan though, just to make sure Hiro wasn’t more injured than he looked. Once his scan was complete and Hiro was successfully returned to an upright position, the healthcare robot took a step back.

Hiro stretched and yawned, absently rubbing at the sore spot on his shoulder where he’d hit the ground particularly hard, and wandered into the middle of the room. Without ceremony, he dropped down on the circular rug, scratched under his armpit, and assumed a meditative pose.

“Hey, Baymax. Can you go find Mochi? I might need his help for this,” Hiro requested tiredly.

“What is it that you are going to do?” the robot asked curiously, tilting his head.

“Well, your scanners couldn’t find anything yesterday, so I thought I’d try something else. I dunno when it started, but lately it seems like my powers are getting stronger or something. Or, at least, I think they are. A few weeks ago, I could only kinda tell where Tadashi was in a room, but lately? I could practically feel exactly where he was and what he was doing, even when we weren’t near each other. That was before I could even see or hear him,” Hiro shrugged. “I’m hoping if I concentrate, I can, I dunno… _sense_ where he is?”

“Like scanning for a patient,” Baymax offered, trying to understand Hiro’s words in terms he himself would use.

“Yeah, exactly like that!” Hiro nodded. “Only, I’d rather not try this on top of a wind turbine if I don’t have to. I’d rather try it here first, where I have Tadashi’s stuff to kind of...use as a reference I guess? I don’t know if I’m making any sense.”

“I understand,” Baymax quickly reassured him. “That is logical, as you also may have an easier time concentrating in a space that is more familiar to the both of you. I will retrieve Mochi for you now.”

“Thanks Baymax,” Hiro said towards the robot’s retreating back, before settling himself more comfortably into his pose. Mochi had tried to convince him to pick up meditation many times in the past, claiming it would help focus and strengthen his medium powers, but Hiro was never one for just sitting idly and doing nothing while his butt went numb. But if it would help him find Tadashi, Hiro was willing to risk butt-numbness and boredom. So he allowed his eyes to slip closed and his breathing to become deep and even.

He started by thinking about what Tadashi’s presence felt like. Normally it was warm and comforting, like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day, but with an extra feeling of familiarity. It was like Tadashi was a miniature sun that followed Hiro around sometimes and provided him with light and warmth to get him through the day. Hiro always knew when Tadashi was nearby because he could feel himself becoming happier, lighter, more carefree. Tadashi was warmth and comfort and protection and cheer, all wrapped up in one ghostly package.

Keeping that image firmly in his mind, Hiro next focused on his own self. More specifically, his medium powers. Most of the time they were dormant, like a sleeping fish under the surface of a calm pond, but occasionally he could prod them into awakening. He tried to do so now, imagining himself pulling the fish up in a bubble of water, closer to the surface until it broke through, scales flashing in the sunlight as it writhed in the air.

He was pretty sure Mochi was hungry when he’d trained Hiro to picture his powers as a fish, but hey. Whatever worked.

With his powers flaring up, Hiro quickly put them into action. He pushed his medium senses outwards, at first in larger and larger rings centered around himself like ripples on a pond, but when he remembered the creature could fly he instead pictured spheres of energy. Slowly he pushed them further and further outwards, like sonar, searching for Tadashi’s familiar presence.

Only for some reason, he was having trouble keeping the energy output consistent. It kept fluctuating and it made it hard to concentrate. Normally Hiro would just blame it on his own inexperience, but lately he thought he’d been getting better! With a growl he scrunched up his face, as if making a concentrating expression would somehow help. But after a few moments of struggling to keep his medium senses stable, he gave up, collapsing backward onto his back with a huff. He could already feel a headache growing in his temples. What a way to start the day.

He heard footsteps coming up the stairs, but they were too heavy to be a balloon-like robot. Sure enough, when he turned his head to look, it was Aunt Cass walking towards him. He watched her approach upside-down, not bothering to raise himself off of the floor. He was just too tired.

“Hiro, honey?” Aunt Cass called out as she hovered over him. “What’s wrong? Why are you lying on the floor like that?”

“Just trying out, uh, yoga?” Hiro joked weakly. He knew she wouldn’t believe him, but it wasn’t like he could tell her what he’d really been doing. “You know, morning stretches, get ready to greet the day? That stuff?”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Ooookay,” she said slowly after a moment of staring at him. “Well, when you’re done with your...stretches, breakfast is ready. Oh, and you might want to go get Baymax, I think he’s chasing after the cat again. He’s going to get popped by claws one of these days, I swear.” She shook her head ruefully.

“Sure, Aunt Cass, be right down!” Hiro chirped, smiling awkwardly. He waited until she had disappeared back down the stairs before letting out a tired sigh. When he turned his thoughts inward again, trying to find his inner fish, or whatever, it seemed even further away than before.

With a frustrated groan, Hiro discarded his inner thoughts and grudgingly pulled himself to his feet. Maybe after getting some fluffy pancakes in his stomach, he’d be able to concentrate better.

+++

“Again,” Mochi sighed, the only sign of his frustration the subtle twitching of his twin tails. “You almost had it that time, I could feel it.”

Hiro, on the other had, was quite visibly irritated. His hair was somehow even more messed up than it had been when he’d woken up after he’d tugged on it so often as he hit roadblock after roadblock. He was at least wearing clothes now instead of PJs, but that was only a slight improvement. He’d been sitting with Mochi for the past _hour_ trying to get his powers to stay working for more than five minutes at a time so he could try to find Tadashi. They’d had little success, and it was taking its toll on both of them.

The only one who remained unbothered by their failed attempts was Baymax, but that was because the robot was busy with Hiro’s computer. The robot had been working on creating a database for himself of all the supernatural species they’d run into, and he was taking the time to update his archives while Hiro and Mochi worked. Or rather, _tried_ to work.

“One more try, Hiro, just one,” Mochi told him.

“Ngh, fine. I’ll try this again, even though it didn’t work the past _ninety_ times,” Hiro growled, shifting again on the area rug. His butt had long gone numb, but at this point he was too focused to bother getting up and grabbing a pillow to sit on.

“Thirty-eight tries,” Baymax corrected pleasantly from his position by the computer. On his chest screen, countless images of mythical creatures and spirits were flashing by too quickly for Hiro to identify.

“Whatever,” Hiro responded with a roll of his eyes, but he did as Mochi asked, settling himself once more and letting his eyes slide shut. He dug down inside of himself almost desperately, praying to his powers that _this_ time, they’d actually cooperate.

The power surged up, flowing through him from his chest down to his fingers and toes, leaving a tingling feeling in its wake. This part was easy enough, just gathering his powers came as naturally to him as breathing now after months of getting used to them, it was the next step that kept giving him trouble. Keeping his eyes firmly shut, he started pushing out the energy in waves again, trying to feel for ripples in their structure.

As before, he sensed Mochi easily, considering the nekomata was sitting right next to him. The waves went out further, stretching over the width of the house, and out onto the street. Hiro started to get hopeful. Usually he lost his focus and the bubbles of power started popping when he pushed them to about this far, but for the first time since they’d started, the power was expanding further. He felt it stretch out onto the street, detecting a pair of sirens and a harpy walking past on the sidewalk below, chatting among themselves. Further, out onto the street and up into the air, revealing a witch flying by overhead on a broom. _Further_ , until it was passing over the street and over to the next one and revealing yet more supernatural creatures. Not far enough though. Had to push past this, had to cover the whole city, had to - what the? There was something...strange he was detecting nearby, close to the front of the cafe. His brow furrowed as he turned his attention to the strangeness. 

Hiro had just long enough to register that there was some kind of...anomaly in his senses, like something was blocking him somehow, when the anomaly suddenly seemed to make contact with the edge of his energy wave. It was like touching electricity to metal, his powers short-circuited, the disruption spread through his powers like dye in water and made everything warp. It was enough to break his control and once again sending his powers slamming back into him.

“Aaaah!” Hiro let out a frustrated yell, grabbing at his hair and pulling so hard for a moment he thought he’d yank it out. “Dang it! Not again!”

Fortunately for his poor abused hair, Baymax had just finished up his work on the computer, because he quickly waddled over and gently disentangled Hiro’s fingers from the messy tresses. Taking each of Hiro’s wrists gently in his own, the robot bent over a little to better look Hiro in the eye.

“Hiro, your blood pressure is increasing, and I am detecting rising levels of stress hormones in your body. Please try to relax. Perhaps we should stop this exercise for the time being.” The robot released Hiro’s wrists once he was sure Hiro wasn’t going to go back to trying to rip out his own hair, and then mechanically patted Hiro on the head. “There, there. It will be alright.” Hiro resisted the urge to swat the soft balloon-like hand away.

Mochi agreed with another tired sigh. “I do believe you are right. This is getting us nowhere. Maybe just take a break for now, Hiro. I’ll go talk to a few of my contacts, see if they’ve seen anything.” His ears flicked as the nekomata started mentally going through his lists of who to talk to. “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear back from them.”

“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Hiro snapped. “Just sit here? Tadashi’s out there, somewhere, probably in trouble. I can’t just sit around and do _nothing_.”

Mochi shot him an unimpressed look. “Don’t you have classes today?” the cat asked with a smirk. “In fact, aren’t you already late?”

Hiro’s eyes went wide and his heart nearly stopped. A quick glance up at the clock revealed that Mochi was right. Hiro’s classes started in twenty minutes, and he hadn’t even packed up his bag. For a split second he considered just skipping, but then he remembered that he was supposed to show up to class so that no one would get suspicious about the team being missing while Big Hero 6 was in another city. Not to mention Aunt Cass would _kill_ him if she caught him playing hooky.

Swearing loudly, Hiro scrambled to his feet, tripping over the corner of his bed and nearly falling headfirst into his dresser. Thankfully Baymax’s reflexes were a lot faster than his rotund appearance would imply, and he managed to grab Hiro by the back of the shirt in time to stop him from cracking his head open. Once Hiro was back on his feet, the robot let go.

“Please be careful, Hiro, you - ”

“No time Baymax! Go put your armour on, we’ll need to fly in if we’re gonna make it!” Hiro ordered frantically, even as he shoved his homework into his half open backpack. “Oh man, where the heck did I put my notebook…”

Baymax started to point out that flying to school might reveal them as superheroes, which was the exact opposite of what they were trying to do, but he quickly gave up when Hiro darted into the bathroom to finish brushing his hair and teeth at the same time. Even he could tell that his words would just fall on deaf ears at this point.

“Oh no,” Baymax sighed to himself, before wandering off towards the garage to start collecting up his armour as Hiro had told him to.

Mochi watched the chaos for a moment longer from his comfortable perch on Hiro’s bed, giving his paws a quick wash, and then gracefully rose to his feet. He stretched, working the kinks out of his back, and then hopped down, heading out of the attic and towards the cafe downstairs. He had to start putting out feelers in his network if they wanted to find Tadashi soon, hopefully one of his contacts would be in for coffee.

Behind him he heard something smash in the bathroom, followed by more of Hiro’s swearing, but he didn’t even pause.

+++

“Okay,” Hiro grunted, shoving open the door to his own lab and tossing his bag onto one of the chairs. “Finally. Classes are over. What a _day_.” He nodded briefly to Tadashi’s shrine by the window, absently noticing that the incense would need to be replaced soon, before dragging a stool out from the corner and dropping down onto it heavily. He booted up his lab’s computer, drumming his fingers on the desk surface as he waited for it to go through the painfully slow loading process, his eyes roaming over the various odds and ends he had stacked on the desk’s surface while he waited.

The McMaster-Carr catalogue and a physics textbook shared space with old leather bound books and parchment scrolls he’d been scribbling in. He’d converted an old potion bottle into a pencil holder, only there were more screwdrivers in it than pens. One of his mecha models sat on a cluster of crystals carved with tiny runes like it was a throne. Countless notebooks were spread out over most of the desk space, full of anything from his bored doodles, to future robot designs, to incantations and spells, to price conversion charts between dollars, yen, and greek obols. Looking it over, he realized that he really needed to organize his things better. But that could wait. For now, he had better things to do, like waiting for this _stupid boat anchor_ of a computer to boot up.

It had been absolute torture sitting through his classes all day, and more than once he’d seriously just considered leaving early and going home to check in with Mochi. Only his knowledge that he needed to do some things in the lab for his friends kept him from rushing off. Besides, he told himself, Mochi would need time to contact people, the nekomata probably wouldn’t know anything until that evening at the earliest.

But even if Hiro understood that there was nothing he could do but wait at the moment, that didn’t stop him from slowly going insane with worry. Tadashi was out there, and he needed help! And what was Hiro doing? Sitting in a lecture hall, listening to some prof drone on about circuit diagrams, bored out of his skull! He could do this stuff in his sleep! He should be spending his time searching for Tadashi, not listening to people teach about stuff he already knew! Even if he had to search by foot, at least it would be less of a waste than these lectures.

It had been a very frustrating day.

Thankfully Baymax had been waiting in the Nerd Lab for him when he finished up for the day, the robot keeping himself busy with trying to pick up a soccer ball one of the other students had left lying around. He wasn’t having much luck. Every time he got close enough to pick it up, one of his stubby legs would accidentally kick it, sending it further away. Hiro watched the show with baffled amusement for a full minute before shaking himself out of his trance and heading to his own lab. At least he was feeling slightly less murderous now.

Baymax wandered into the lab after him, heading straight for the permanent charging station Hiro had installed shortly after he’d taken over the lab space. The healthcare robot stepped into the red case, topping up his battery now, so that when it came time to hunt for Tadashi again, he’d be ready. Once he was situated and charging, he looked over to where Hiro was typing away at the computer, muttering under his breath about cheap, outdated tech and absently toying with the string of prayer beads hanging from the handle of the cupboard above his head.

“What are you doing, Hiro?” the robot asked curiously.

Hiro glanced over at him before turning back towards the computer screen with a shake of his head. “Just turning in a project for GoGo so she doesn’t get a mark reduction on it for being late,” Hiro explained absently. “After I’m finished here, I’m gonna quickly go mess with everyone’s stations so it looks like they were here working, and then we’re all finished and we can go home so I can try to get my _stupid_ powers working so we can just _find Tadashi already!_ ”

The end there had come out a bit harsher than Hiro had meant it to, but thankfully Baymax couldn’t get offended.

“Perhaps what you need is a change of scenery?” Baymax suggested helpfully. “When one has become stuck on a project, sometimes it can be helpful to ‘shake things up’.”

Hiro snorted and looked over his shoulder at Baymax again. “Look at it from a new angle?” he offered with a grin.

“Exactly,” Baymax nodded, and somehow Hiro knew he was smiling.

Hiro hummed to himself as he thought about it. Maybe Baymax was right, maybe he just had to change things up a bit, switch up his mindset. His room was where he went to relax, anyways, maybe being in a space he associated with working and thinking would help. It was worth a shot.

Twenty minutes later found Hiro once again sitting cross-legged on the floor, this time in the middle of his private lab space. Even though it was getting well into the evening hours and pretty much all of the other students were gone, Hiro still locked the door to his personal lab, not wanting anyone to wander in while he was distracted. There was a splash of some chemical on his hand from when he’d moved things around Honey Lemon’s station to make it look used recently, which he rubbed off on his pants, hoping that it wasn’t toxic. That distraction gone, he turned his focus inward once more, with Baymax standing watch nearby like a silent guardian.

He had been expecting that he’d have similar results to before, perhaps being able to reach a little bit further but nothing too significant. Therefore he was shocked when his powers flowed easily, his medium senses stretching out over the campus without any trouble at all. He hadn’t been able to sense things with his powers this easily since...well, since Tadashi was taken. Hiro had been starting to suspect that his powers didn’t work if Tadashi wasn’t around, but they were working now, as simple as breathing.

Shaking off his surprise for now, Hiro focused on the task at hand. He could be confused about the inconsistency of his powers later, right now he needed to find Tadashi. He pushed his senses as far as they could go, spreading them out over the city.

And almost immediately stopped them with a strangled yelp when thousands of supernatural creatures and spirits suddenly registered in his mind all at once. Whoa, information overload.

“Are you alright, Hiro?” Baymax asked him, stepping out of his charging station to scan Hiro and check for physical injuries. Hiro waved him off.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he quickly reassured his friend, “Just kinda took in too much at once. I could suddenly sense pretty much every supernatural creature in the city and it was a little bit...overwhelming. Let me try this again, just...slower. This time. I swear I’m okay.” Baymax accepted this, and backed off again, giving Hiro his space.

The young superhero took a moment to regain control of his breathing, and then settled once more into his meditative pose. He stretched out his senses once more, though much more carefully this time, and with the slower speed he was able to actually register what he was sensing and focus his attention rather than take in everything at once. With another deep breath, he changed his senses like a person shifting through the frequencies on a radio, trying to ‘tune in’ on Tadashi. As he narrowed his focus, the signals he was receiving from every other kind of creature slowly faded, until all Hiro was picking up on were the ghosts of San Fransokyo. Still a lot of information to go through, but slightly less than _everything_.

“Okay. Where are you, bro?” Hiro murmured to himself as he searched. He mentally picked over every ghost he came across, feeling their spirits for anything familiar. One by one they were discarded as his search carried his mind further and further across the city, searching for any sign of Tadashi’s presence. The longer he looked without success, the more he could feel his heart clenching tighter and tighter in his chest.

Finally, after searching as far as his senses could reach, which he was sure covered the whole city, he had to admit defeat. He’d been searching for who knew how long, and he’d found nothing. Wherever Tadashi was, he wasn’t in San Fransokyo anymore.

With a growl, Hiro cut off his medium senses abruptly, crashing back into himself so hard he nearly fell over. Less than a second later, his head started pounding like there was an imp living in his brain and using the inside of his skull as a drum set. Groaning, Hiro buried his face in his hands and just tried to focus on breathing. Oh god, this was all just too much. _Where the hell was his brother?_

“Hiro?” Baymax’s voice broke the silence of the room and cut off Hiro’s panicked thoughts. “Are you unwell?” Hiro glanced up at his robotic friend. If Hiro didn’t know any better, he’d say Baymax looked worried.

“I’m fine, Baymax,” Hiro said hoarsely, rubbing at his temples. Then, after thinking about it for a moment, he shook his head. “Actually, no, no I’m not. I couldn’t find him.”

“Tadashi?” Baymax clarified.

“Yeah. I looked everywhere, or at least I’m pretty sure I did, but I couldn’t sense him anywhere in the city. He’s just _gone_ , Baymax! And I don’t even know where to start looking anymore!”

The room went quiet again as Baymax paused to consider this. Hiro could feel tears of frustration and fear starting to fill his eyes and close his throat up, but he refused to give in to them right now. He didn’t have time to cry. Tadashi needed him.

But Hiro couldn’t help him because he had no idea where Tadashi was.

“My head hurts,” Hiro eventually admitted weakly in a very quiet voice. “I want to go home.”

Baymax nodded and started helping Hiro gather up his things without a word.

+++

When they arrived back home, Hiro barely tossed a half-hearted greeting in Aunt Cass’ direction, already heading up the stairs to his bedroom. Aunt Cass called out after him, asking him about his day, but he was too tired and upset to answer her, so he simply ignored her and left Baymax behind to speak with her. Once he was safely in his room, he flopped facedown on his bed and just lay there for a moment, trying to let the stresses of the day flow out of him like water. He wasn’t sure how successful he was.

He didn’t get to lay there for long though, because suddenly there was the sharp pressure of four little paws digging into his back. Mochi must have snuck back into the house through Hiro’s window, and rather than do the polite thing like _land on the bed next to him_ , Mochi had decided to use Hiro’s back as a landing pad.

Hiro hissed as Mochi walked down his spine, somehow finding all the little sensitive spots to dig into, before finally hopping off of him and settling on the edge of the bed. Hiro raised his head from his blankets just enough so that he could turn and glare at the nekomata in annoyance. Mochi didn’t even look up from bathing his tails. Stupid furball.

With a grumble, Hiro reluctantly turned over. He was dead tired, but he still wanted to hear what Mochi had to say in case there was any news. He looked at the cat expectantly, waiting for his report.

Mochi moved on to cleaning his paws. Hiro glared harder.

Finally, after nearly a minute of just sitting and waiting while Mochi finished his tongue bath, Hiro let out a groan of frustration and sat up fully. “Well?” he prompted. “Anything?”

Mochi hesitated, and for a moment Hiro thought the cat was going to continue ignoring him, but suddenly his shoulders slumped in defeat. His entire tiny body seemed to be crushed under a massive weight as he slowly hung his head.

“Nothing. No one I’ve spoken to has heard anything,” the nekomata admitted. “They’ll keep an eye out, but…”

Hiro tried not to be crushed by the lack of news. He had been so hopeful, so sure that Mochi would find something. The old cat had always seemed so confident, so knowledgable about all things supernatural that to see him without answers for once was disturbing. Hiro had no idea how old Mochi really was, only that he’d been around for a long time, but he’d never really seen the cat’s age as clearly as he did now. Mochi looked so tired, so defeated. He looked _ancient_.

“Honestly, I think at this point your powers are our best hope,” Mochi told him sadly.

Hiro jolted a little at the mention of his powers. He’d meant to ask Mochi about what had happened after they’d hopefully sorted out Tadashi, but now that that was a bust, maybe he could get answers about _something_ tonight. Maybe Mochi could explain the strange inconsistencies he’d been experiencing.

“Yeah, about that,” Hiro started, scratching at an itch on the back of his head. “I tried searching for Tadashi again today after class, just because I couldn’t wait, you know? So I went to the lab and sat down and tried it out, just like you taught me.”

Mochi’s ears perked up, and he focused his bright green eyes fully on Hiro’s face. “Oh? And?”

“It was strange. I had no trouble at all,” Hiro admitted, his face creasing in confusion. “It was actually really easy. I even managed to stretch my powers out over the whole city! It was amazing! Gave me a headache though.”

Mochi shot him an impressed look. “Did you? Very well done! Although it’s strange how it suddenly started working for you.” The nekomata’s brow furrowed as he thought about that, before quickly dismissing it with a wave of his paw. “But that’s a matter for later. You still managed to scan the whole city! And…” his face quickly fell when he realized that Hiro wouldn’t have asked about his own search if Hiro had managed to find Tadashi on his own. “I’m guessing you found nothing, then,” the nekomata finished sadly.

Hiro shook his head. “No, nothing. Wherever he is, it’s not in the city.”

The pair fell silent while they each tried to figure out what their next step would be. Hiro was pretty much ready to hop on Baymax and head for the nearest wind turbine at this point. Maybe the higher vantage point would help increase his range. If that failed they could always just try searching in a grid pattern. Oh, but that might need the rest of the team so he could cover more area, so he’d have to wait until they got back. There was always that dragon too, though…

Hiro’s mind was awhirl with thoughts and plans and maps and calculations, but that all came to a screeching halt when Mochi suddenly placed a tentative paw on his knee. He looked down at the nekomata, and felt his nerves stir slightly at the pained expression on Mochi’s face.

“What?” Hiro asked reluctantly. Something told him he was _not_ going to like what Mochi had to say.

“It’s just,” Mochi winced, his pink tongue darting out to wet his nose. “Normally I would never suggest this, but...if neither of us have had much luck...and no one has heard anything...just. Have you considered the possibility that Tadashi has...gone on?”

Hiro jerked like he’d been slapped, knocking Mochi’s paw away. “No. No, he’s not. He wouldn’t just leave like that.”

“He could,” Mochi pointed out gently. “He knows how to pass on by himself. He’s capable of leaving at any time.”

“He _wouldn’t_ ,” Hiro snapped. “He wouldn’t just...leave. Not without saying goodbye.”

Mochi just kept looking at him sadly though, like he was a young child who didn’t understand. Hiro hated it. _Hated_ it. Who said it was Hiro who didn’t understand? What did Mochi know, anyways? What did he know about brothers and the promises they’d made to each other. What did he know about _Tadashi_? Clearly not much if he actually thought Tadashi would just _leave_.

“He wouldn’t,” Hiro said with finality. “He’s not gone.”

“But he might be - ”

“He’s _not_!” Hiro shouted, startling Mochi badly enough that his tails puffed up. Hiro’s hands flew up to his ears as if he could block the cat’s words out, as if he could pretend that the idea had never been brought up. He could barely handle the thought of Tadashi passing on at all, but the thought of him leaving without saying goodbye? It was enough to push Hiro over the edge.

In the quiet brought on by Hiro’s outburst, they heard the familiar sound of vinyl brushing over vinyl, and something ascending the stairs. Sure enough, seconds later Baymax’s head popped into view, blinking at them.

“Hiro? Is everything alright?” Baymax asked in concern.

Hiro didn’t even bother lying, he simply shook his head, biting his lip. Baymax took the hint and toddled over, reaching out once he reached the bedside and wrapping Hiro up in a hug. Hiro took the opportunity to bury his face in Baymax’s chest and just focusing on getting his racing heart and storming mind back under control. Baymax helped by slowly inflating and deflating, simulating breathing, and giving Hiro something to focus on. Occasionally he’d rub circles on Hiro’s back as well, just like Tadashi used to do after Hiro had woken up from a nightmare. It was a familiar sensation, and went a long way in helping Hiro calm down.

“There, there,” Baymax soothed, patting Hiro on the back again. “It will be alright. We will find Tadashi.”

Somehow that gentle reassurance left him more chilled than Mochi’s hesitant suggestions that Tadashi might have left. What if Mochi _was_ right? How could Baymax be so sure they would succeed?

“But Baymax,” Hiro leaned away from the robot’s soft chest so he could look up into his eyes. “We don’t know where he is. We don’t know where to find him. We don’t even know _what took him_.” His throat closed up a bit as his frustration and anger and upset overwhelmed him for a moment. He felt tears gathering in the corners of his eyes, and furiously wiped them away. “We know nothing.”

But then, to his absolute shock, Baymax’s chest lit up, and a bunch of information began flashing across his screen. “The subject is...twenty point four meters long. Its wingspan is...nine point six meters in width. Its body is covered in a scale-like epidermis layer. It emits spectral energy like many ghosts and spirits of the dead. It has - ”

“Wait, Baymax, you scanned it?!” Hiro yelped, grabbing at Baymax’s shoulders and staring at the images on his chest screen in shock. “When?!”

“During our attempt to retrieve Tadashi,” Baymax answered calmly, completely at ease with Hiro’s rough manhandling. “I was attempting to increase my supernatural database, as it was a species I had not yet encountered before.”

“And?” Hiro prompted wildly. “Did you figure out what it was?”

Baymax blinked. “No,” he admitted after a pause. “The scans did not match any known specimen in my research.”

Hiro let out a growl of frustration before quickly shoving Baymax around so that his screen of data was facing Mochi. “What about you, do you recognize it?”

The nekomata narrowed his eyes at the screen, studying it intently. After a moment, Mochi shrugged, and shook his head. Hiro slumped down in disbelief.

“How can you not know what it is?” he shouted. “You know everything, don’t you?”

Mochi gave him an irritated glare. “I’m old, not omniscient. It looks similar to a few different creatures I’ve seen in the past, but nothing exact. I’d almost say it’s a dragon, except it’s ghostly if these scans are to be believed. Not to mention if it was a dragon, surely someone would have seen something by now and told us where it is.”

Hiro had to admit, Mochi was right. “Okay, so it’s something we don’t recognize. Maybe someone else would know it?”

“Hmm, I suppose I could ask around again,” Mochi agreed with a nod. “It couldn’t hurt.”

“I’ll make sure Baymax prints off a copy of his notes so you can share them,” Hiro said. Then he turned back to the robot, a smile growing on his face. “You’re unbelievable, you know that? Thanks Baymax.”

“You are my friend, Hiro. I want to help,” Baymax told him.

“You’ve been an amazing help, bud. Good work.” Hiro held up a fist. Baymax copied the motion, and the two fist bumped.

“Ba-la-la-la-la,” they said in unison. Hiro grinned up at the robot so widely his cheeks hurt.

Just then Baymax straightened up, and a ringing noise came from his chest. Hiro blinked in surprise.

“Our friends are contacting us,” Baymax announced. “Shall I connect the call?”

“Uh, yeah. Go for it,” Hiro said. At once, Baymax’s chest screen lit up, revealing Honey Lemon’s worried face in the dim light of her cellphone camera. He could faintly make out the others moving around in the darkened hotel room they were crashing in behind her, but couldn’t see much beyond that they were all moving sluggishly. Honey Lemon’s face though he could see clearly, and it was streaked with dirt and sweat. She somehow looked even worse than when he’d left them, even though they should have been well on the way towards finishing by now. Instantly he was on alert.

“Honey Lemon, hey! What’s going on?” he asked, his eyes darting over her features. “What happened.”

“Oh Hiro, it’s terrible,” she told him sadly. “I don’t know if you’ve heard yet, but Bodegawa got hit by another earthquake this afternoon!”

“What? Oh man, no I hadn’t heard!” Hiro admitted, realizing he’d been so busy working on his powers after school that he hadn’t even thought to check in on the team. “Is everyone okay?”

“Oh, yes. We’re fine,” she quickly confirmed, “It wasn’t as bad as the first one, thankfully, so no one really got hurt, but a few of the buildings that managed to stay upright the first time collapsed, and there’s even more damage than before. We’re practically back to square one over here.”

“Really? Do you need me and Baymax to come back?” he asked, already preparing to pack up his stuff and leave. He hadn’t really finished unpacking from their first trip over, he could be quick enough. And Aunt Cass would be heading to bed soon, so he’d be able to sneak out without too much trouble.

But before he could get too far ahead of himself, Honey Lemon quickly shook her head. “No, it’s okay. Like I said, it’s mostly just rubble. But another nearby town got hit as well, and we need to make sure they’re all okay now too. We just wanted to warn you we’re going to be stuck here for another few days at least. Maybe until the weekend now. Hopefully we’ll work fast though. Any luck with Tadashi?”

Hiro let out a tired sigh, shaking his head sadly. “No luck. We know where he _isn’t_ , and Baymax managed to get some info on the thing that took him, but otherwise we’ve still got nothing. You guys might as well be stuck in Bodegawa a bit longer, it beats just sitting around here.”

“Oh Hiro,” Honey Lemon crooned sadly. “Hey, it’s alright. You’ll figure this out. Don’t worry. And we’ll be back as soon as we can be to help find him okay? Let us know if you find anything sooner, though, and we’ll head home straight away. Heathcliff is still on standby with the helicopter after all.”

Hiro smiled weakly. “Thanks Honey Lemon. I’ll keep that in mind. Good luck with the relief work, try to get some rest.”

“You too, Hiro,” she told him fondly, and then Baymax’s chest screen went dark as the connection was cut.

Hiro sighed again and rolled his neck, trying to work out the kinks. God, it had been a long day. He needed to sleep, badly. All his scanning with his powers today was really starting to catch up to him.

“Listen, guys,” he addressed the robot and the cat. “I can’t sit through another day of class while Tadashi is still missing. I just can’t. So I’m gonna skip tomorrow and start searching the city. Who knows, maybe someone saw something, or knows that the heck this thing is.”

“Hiro, that’s what my contacts are for,” Mochi pointed out tiredly.

“Yeah, but your contacts aren’t everywhere,” Hiro argued back. “You never know who might know something. Besides, it’s better than doing _nothing_.”

“Your education is important, Hiro,” Baymax tried to insist, but Hiro brushed him off with a shake of his head.

“I’ll be too distracted to focus anyways. There’s no point. Don’t try to talk me out of this, you two, I’m spending tomorrow searching the city and that’s final.”

“And what if your Aunt notices?” Mochi asked with a raised eyebrow. That question was enough to give Hiro pause. Aunt Cass catching him skipping school was definitely not a good thing. But there was no way he could make it through another day of class pretending everything was alright. He would just have to risk it.

“Just let me worry about that, okay,” Hiro said tiredly. “I’m sure she won’t notice. It’s Beat Poetry Night tomorrow, the cafe tends to be pretty busy.”

Unable to think of any other arguments, Mochi and Baymax let the matter drop. With a flick of his tails, Mochi bid the two others goodnight and hopped off of Hiro’s bed, making his way to his usual sleeping spot on top of the fridge in the kitchen. Baymax himself headed for his charging station, ready to deactivate for the night.

Hiro himself set his phone’s alarm for 7AM. He wanted to be up and about as bright and early as he could be tomorrow, so he’d have more time to search.

With that settled, he soon buried himself under his bedcovers, burrowing into them until he was in the middle of a warm cocoon of soft fabric. His eyes sank closed like lead weights were attached to them.

For a moment he felt like something was pressing against his chest, crushing him down and making it hard to breathe, but the feeling passed so quickly he’d almost thought he’d imagined it. Confused, but too sleepy to muster up the energy to care, he rolled over again and slipped into dreams of flying through the sky, and sudden darkness, and glowing eyes staring into his soul.


	5. The Tune Without Words

Hiro spent the next two weeks on the streets.

He travelled by foot and by flight, searching every area of the city he could think of, dragging Baymax along with his scans displayed on his chest. Over and over he would point to the information and ask if anyone knew what it was, or where it might be. Over and over again, he found nothing.

He started with Mrs Matsuda, knowing that she was often the person Tadashi went to when he needed answers about all things supernatural, but when they got to her house she wasn’t there, with no sign of where she’d gone or when she’d be back. Dejected, Hiro dragged Baymax back out onto the street, pulling him along just in time to stop the robot from poking one of Mrs Matsuda’s flowers and getting bitten for his troubles. Hiro really wasn’t in the mood to have to sidetrack their hunt to find some tape to fix Baymax up.

Next they headed for the market Hiro often frequented when he was looking for new ways to upgrade the team’s supersuits to combat supernatural threats. He had formed a bit of a friendship with a centaur there over their mutual love of botfighting, and he was hoping either the centaur or one of the other merchants at the market would know something. But when he started speaking to the people at the market, most of them quickly grew disinterested when they realized that he wasn’t there to buy anything and brushed him off. Even when he begged them to at least _look_ at the information on Baymax’s screen, they became hostile and insisted that he buy something or leave. The only person there who seemed at least grudgingly happy to see him was the centaur, but even he was brisk with Hiro, informing the young Medium that he wasn’t familiar with the creature, and that was the end of it. Hiro tried to keep looking for help, but he had to stop when Baymax got stuck between two stalls and ended up causing a scene as people tried to get by him. Hiro eventually gave up finding answers at the market, and once he’d managed to get Baymax free they’d left.

He even went as far as to visit the local temples, even though they usually left his skin buzzing with energy and he had to deal with the kitsune that lived there. He’d tolerate their tricks and jokes at his own expense if he could just get some _answers_. But after twenty minutes of listening to the foxes giggling at him and talk around in circles, he quickly realized that they were just as clueless as he was, and they were just looking for reasons to keep him around. With a huff, Hiro turned and left without saying goodbye, ignoring their irritated squawks at his rudeness.

Consulting with the counsel of dragons of the city revealed nothing other than they were looking too, as they promised. Hiro spoke with the commuters who were waiting on the street corner for the flying carpet that would take them downtown, but while they were all willing to listen, no one had any ideas. One of the people standing there, a little Kappa girl, had looked quite distressed when he told her about Tadashi’s disappearance, and she’d ended up joining him for a while as he searched, helping him find new places to look and new people to talk to. Though he learned a few things about the city, and met some wonderful new people, it was all for naught.

Hiro would never say it out loud, but after days of searching from sun up to sun down, dragging Baymax through every single nook and cranny in the city and speaking to anyone who would listen, he was beginning to lose hope of ever finding Tadashi again.

+++

How long had he been down here?

It was so dark. Even his hitodama could barely shed light anymore, hovering so close they almost pressed against his skin, offering no heat. He couldn’t tell how many hours had passed since the creature had sealed him in here, but it could have been days or even weeks for all he knew. Had he faded in and out in that time? He wasn’t sure, but if he had it could have been even longer.

He’d taken the chance early on to explore the base of the crevice while the creature was gone, finally making his way over to the narrow end he’d spotted before. He’d pushed himself through, pleased that he could squeeze between the rough stone walls with a bit of effort, but after a few minutes of struggling he’d quickly realized that the space wasn’t getting any wider. A quick scout ahead with one of his hitodama showed him that the tiny passage continued on for another twenty feet or so, growing more and more narrow all the while, before finally closing. He wouldn’t be able to pass through this way.

With a sigh and a grumbled curse, he’d reluctantly pulled himself from the narrow crack. At least he could still consider it as a way to get away from the creature if it tried to eat him or something. Although if he was squeezed in there when the creature screamed again, with his hands trapped unable to reach his ears and the noise echoing in the tiny space, that would not be good. So he decided it would be a last resort.

But that meant that he was stuck at the bottom of the fissure with nowhere else to go. He’d tried climbing out again, but he couldn’t get past the boulders. Even when he tried phasing through them, they were as solid as ever, which completely baffled him. He’d never heard of ghost-proof rocks before. The climb back down had been painful, but at least he hadn’t fallen again.

He’d tried exploring the fissure in a few more directions, but eventually he’d realized that he was well and truly trapped, and so he’d settled down to wait. But without anything to distract him, he could only focus on how _dark_ it was. How _quiet_ it was. With nothing else down there with him, his eyes and ears started to make things up.

At first Tadashi could shake off these little tricks of his mind without trouble, pushing them away and telling himself he was just being silly. But then, as his isolation continued, he started having a harder and harder time telling what was real from what was not. He’d caught himself talking to the skeleton at least once, and waiting for answers like he was having a conversation. And then the _whispers_ started.

Tadashi froze. He knew that sound anywhere. Even if it had been three months, the Onryo’s whispering shadows still haunted his thoughts whenever it got too quiet. He still remembered the feeling of them crawling all over him, pulling him down, shoving themselves down his throat and _searching_ inside for something they could _hurt_. One of the small blessings about dying was that at least he didn’t dream anymore, or he would constantly be having nightmares about the Onryo.

As much as he tried to tell himself that the Onryo was gone, that Professor Callaghan had defeated it once and for all, he still shrank when the shadows seemed to come to life in the weak flickering light of his hitodama. He could hear the whispering, growing louder, coming closer. His logical mind insisted it was just the sound of dirt falling from above somewhere, or maybe the wind blowing over the stones above, but he was becoming far too frightened to listen to logic anymore.

He whimpered and curled up into a ball, burying his face in his arms and squeezing his eyes shut. That helped block out the image of the shifting shadows, but he could still hear whispering. After a few seconds, when the whispers didn’t fade, he started humming to himself, just to make some noise and drown them out.

At first, he just hummed whatever came to mind, old commercial jingles, Honey Lemon’s pop music, the theme song to that anime Fred tried to show him in first year that he’d never really liked but had grudgingly watched a full season of. But as the whispers started to die off and his confidence built, he started singing instead.

He started with an old lullaby his mother used to sing for him, that he in turn had sung for Hiro when they were little. It had been soothing to him in the past, and it did its job now. The whispers choked and died off as he sang, growing louder and more energized. Even his hitodama started burning a bit brighter, swaying to the beat of his song.

As his confidence grew, so did his energy. He switched from the lullaby to his favourite Disney songs, and then some of the pop songs he absolutely loved but was embarrassed to admit to. By the end he was on his feet, dancing around the small space at the bottom of the fissure, making exaggerated hip wiggles in the direction of the skeleton. He even threw it a wink, like it was some sort of screaming fan, and he was a rockstar.

It was stupid and silly and _god_ did it feel good.

But eventually he ran out of songs to sing and his throat started getting sore. He flopped down on the hard ground with a sigh, tired but pleased with himself. That would keep the shadows from coming back for a while. With a happy sigh, he allowed his eyes to slip closed for a moment, regaining the strength he’d lost with his crazy dancing.

+++

What felt like seconds later, but could have been hours, he heard the grating sound of stone on stone from above, and felt chips of rock and dirt come tumbling down on top of him. He immediately scrambled to his feet, squinting upwards when daylight suddenly flooded the crevice, creating tall columns of light through the swirling particles of dust in the air. But all too soon the creature was climbing down through the opening on its long talons, its bulky body blocking out the light once more.

When it reached the nearest rock shelf above his head, it stopped and perched, staring down at him with a look like triumph in its eyes.

“ **Well, medium? Have you thought twice about your answer yet? Are you ready to admit defeat?** ” it asked him, confident that leaving him alone in the darkness for who knew how long would be enough to break him. And if it had come any earlier, when Tadashi was still fighting off the illusions of whispers and shadows, it might have.

But Tadashi wasn’t scared anymore, and he refused to show fear to whatever this thing was. He refused to be cowed.

“I’m not a medium,” he told the creature again, his voice low and angry, “and I am _not_ going to help you.”

The creature screamed in rage, blasting Tadashi back flat against the floor. Tadashi had been ready however, and he turned away and ducked into a ball, trying to cover his head as much as possible. It still hurt like crazy, but this way at least he was already on the ground when it stopped, and he was less dazed. When he was sure the creature was done, he slowly stood, turning back towards it with a smug grin on his face.

“Is that all you can do?” he taunted, high on whatever the ghostly equivalent to adrenaline was. The creature's bulbous eyes narrowed.

It turned out that no, that was not all the creature could do.

The creature’s talons and beak flashed in the sunlight from above, and this time it was Tadashi who was screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another shorter chapter, but you get TWO arts to make up for it! Score!
> 
> Besides, we can't just have everything getting sorted out TOO quickly, right? >:)
> 
> (and if anyone is curious, the chapter title comes from a quote/poem by Emily Dickinson:
> 
> “Hope is the thing with feathers  
> That perches in the soul  
> And sings the tune without the words  
> And never stops at all.” 
> 
> ...we thought it apt. Keep hoping, guys!)


	6. Break Apart

Hiro woke up late on Saturday, exhausted after being up so early and home after dark so many nights in a row. He knew he should be getting up, heading out and continuing his search; Tadashi had been missing for _ages_ at this point, and who knew what was happening to him. But his whole body ached from the lack of sleep. He groaned and just lay there for a moment, struggling to will himself into motion.

Finally, with a grunt of effort, Hiro managed to push himself up and out of his comfortable bed. He didn’t bother with freshening up, he just tiredly threw on the first pieces of clean clothing he could find, careless of whether they matched or not, and stumbled into the bathroom to brush his teeth. Once that was done, he staggered down the stairs, heading towards the cafe below where he could smell the latest batch of pastries Aunt Cass must have just pulled out of the oven. Maybe he’d actually be able to eat breakfast today before he left to look for Tadashi again, rather than choking down the granola bars he stuffed into his pockets whenever he had a moment to spare for food.

As he got closer to the cafe, he took a deep sniff, and a tired smile crossed his face. Aunt Cass was making Cat Paw Pastries, his favourite. He _definitely_ needed to snag one now. Moving slowly towards the cafe’s kitchen, Hiro started glancing around for any sign of Aunt Cass. Her Cat Paw Pastries were one of her best sellers, so if she caught him stealing one he’d get his hand smacked with a spoon for sure, but they were so tasty that they were worth the risk. Ducking his head around the doorway, Hiro glanced inside the kitchen just in time to see Aunt Cass walking out into the cafe carrying a huge tray of tarts to put out on display. That meant Hiro had just under fifty three seconds to sneak into the kitchen and grab a snack. Easy.

Tiptoeing carefully to make as little noise as possible, Hiro darted out of the doorway and into the kitchen, making a beeline for the tray of pastries sitting on the counter, fresh from the oven. He tried to take one right away, but yelped and pulled back when he burned his fingers on the hot flaky crust. Damn, too hot. Thinking quickly, he snatched a plate and napkin from the cupboards and started using the napkin to protect his hand while he flicked the pastry onto the plate. His face screwed up in concentration, his tongue poking out between his teeth as he handled the pastry with all of the care of a surgeon. Then, with a flick of his hand, he managed to knock the pastry onto the plate with a satisfying tap.

“Yesssss,” he whispered quietly to himself in success, throwing in a little fist pump for good measure.

“Nooooo,” Aunt Cass mocked from behind him.

Hiro yelped and jumped, sending the plate and pastry flying. Immediately he started scrambling for them, not wanting either to hit the ground, fumbling them both on the tips of his fingers and flailing wildly as he tried to keep them from dropping. After a few seconds he successfully saved the plate, but the pastry hit the floor with a sad plop.

“Aww,” Hiro moaned mournfully at the fallen pastry. “My breakfast.”

“My baked goods!” Aunt Cass shot back, before shaking her head and sighing and bending over to pick it up. “Oh well. Good thing I made a double batch today.” Without ceremony, she threw the pastry into the garbage. Hiro watched it go with a gloomy expression.

“Sorry Aunt Cass,” Hiro apologized glumly, hanging his head in defeat. Without looking at her, he placed his now empty plate in the sink to be washed with the rest of the breakfast rush dishes that were already piling up. When Aunt Cass’ kitchen staff got there later that afternoon, they were going to have a lot of work to do. “They just smelled so good.”

She nodded and laughed. “I know, half of the customers in the cafe right now are just sitting there and sniffing. That’s why I wanted to grab them and bring them out as quickly as possible. But what are you doing in here? I haven’t seen much of you these past few weeks, ever since you got back from that overnight field trip. Is everything okay? You look tired, sweetie, did something happen while you were gone?” As she spoke to him, she was still moving around the kitchen, transferring the Cat Paw Pastries from their baking sheet to the tray she used for the displays.

Hiro tried his best to hide his sudden nerves. There was no way Aunt Cass could have guessed what had really happened on that ‘overnight field trip’, either the superhero or the supernatural side of things, but her words hit a little too close to home. She was noticing something was wrong, just like Mochi had tried to warn him of, but he couldn’t let her know what was really going on. First of all, she’d never believe him, and even if she did, she’d _freak_.

“No, no, everything’s okay Aunt Cass!” Hiro quickly reassured her. “Perfectly fine! I’ve just been busy with school stuff, you know how it is! Here, let me take those out for you,” he offered, hoping to move the topic of conversation to something else.

But Aunt Cass just snorted at him. “And have half of them eaten before they even make it to the shelves? I don’t think so, mister.” She scooped up the tray to keep it out of his reach, even though with his recent growth spurt he was almost as tall as her now. He jokingly reached up to try to steal one, but she dodged out of the way, laughing. The two teased each other for a moment, Hiro trying to steal the pastries and Aunt Cass defending them, until they heard someone call out for assistance from the cafe.

“Oops. Coming sir, just one moment!” Aunt Cass called out, before settling the tray of pastries more firmly in her arms and turning to look at Hiro with a strange smile that almost looked sad. “Really, though, Hiro. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine, Aunt Cass. I promise,” Hiro told her, grabbing another tray of baked goods to help her out. The pair walked out of the kitchen and into the cafe, where Hiro started putting out cookies while Aunt Cass dealt with the customers. The two worked quietly and efficiently together for a while, just focusing on taking care of the morning rush and enjoying each others company.

But after an hour or so, Hiro started getting antsy. He’d wasted too much time, he needed to get back out there on the street and look for Tadashi. He waited until there was a bit of a lull in customers, before pulling off his Lucky Cat Cafe apron and hanging it on the wall, brushing loose flour and sugar off of his hands and onto his shorts. He needed a shower.

“Sorry Aunt Cass, is it alright if I head out now?” He called out to Aunt Cass, who was just finishing up with filling out her supply order forms for the week. She glanced up at the sound of his voice and smiled.

“Sure sweetie, thanks for all of your help today. Marie should be here soon anyways, I’ll be good until she gets in. Where are you off to, though?”

“Uh, just...hanging out with friends,” Hiro invented quickly. Like he was going to tell her what he’d really be up to today.

“From school?” Aunt Cass asked with a frown. “You know, I haven’t seen them in a while, not since before you left for your trip actually. Did you guys have a fight or something? Is that what’s gotten you down lately?”

“No, no, no! We haven’t been fighting!” Hiro said quickly, giving her a desperate grin that probably looked as awkward and unnatural on his face as it felt. “Nope, no fighting, nuh uh. We definitely do not fight things. That’s not us. No fighting, no.”

“Oh. It just seems kind of strange that none of them have been by recently,” Aunt Cass continued to muse to herself, scratching at her cheek and leaving a smear of caramel sauce. “Usually they’re here all the time. You don’t think something’s wrong, do you? Maybe we should call them and check in on them. I think I have Honey Lemon’s house number, somewhere around here.” She started digging in the drawers under the cash register, muttering to herself and looking for the store’s address book.

Hiro’s eyes went wide with panic. If Aunt Cass called the team now and realized none of them were at home, she might figure out what was going on! He started glancing around the cafe, looking for something, _anything_ that would distract her, but for once the cafe was relatively quiet and none of the customers looked like they needed anything. It was _never_ this dead on a Saturday, was the universe conspiring against him!?

Just as Hiro was about to do something stupid, like take a pastry and throw it at someone just to get Aunt Cass’ attention, the bell above the cafe’s door jingled, and a group of people stumbled in. Hiro looked up and nearly fainted in relief.

“Oh, _there_ you all are!” Aunt Cass cried out cheerfully, ducking out from behind the counter to sweep up the closest person into a hug. Fred let out a tired grunt as Aunt Cass squeezed him tight, but he managed to get his arms around her to return her hug before she let go. She then moved on down the rest of the team, hugging each of them in turn. “I was beginning to think you guys had forgotten how to get here!”

“Sorry, Ms Hamada,” Wasabi apologized for the rest of them as she finished hugging him. “It’s been a pretty rough couple of weeks for us at school.”

“Hiro was just saying that, you poor things,” Aunt Cass tutted, glancing back at Hiro who was still hiding behind the counter and trying to catch his breath. That had been _way_ too close. “He’s been looking so tired all week. In fact, you all look pretty exhausted.”

Realizing he needed to separate Aunt Cass and the others _now_ , before she started thinking too hard about why they were tired and putting the pieces together, Hiro quickly jumped over the counter and headed towards the group, grabbing GoGo and Fred by the hands and starting to drag them towards the back. Wasabi and Honey Lemon stumbled to keep up.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty crazy, but that’s why we’re all getting together now to celebrate being done the thing at school, so they’re gonna all come upstairs and hang out, is that okay Aunt Cass?” Hiro tossed over his shoulder. “Okay, thanks Aunt Cass, see you later!”

“Uh...bye,” Aunt Cass blinked and waved after their rapidly retreating backs. Then, shaking her head fondly, she wandered over to the nearest occupied table to ask if they needed a refill.

+++

Meanwhile, Hiro pulled the others through the kitchen and all the way up the stairs to his bedroom, only pausing long enough to grab some snacks and start the coffee maker going. Honey Lemon and GoGo ended up on Hiro’s bed, Honey Lemon sitting gingerly on the edge while GoGo was flopped down on her stomach. Wasabi took Hiro’s desk chair, and Fred just threw himself down on the floor. Hiro himself stayed standing. Once they were all settled and the snacks had been gobbled up, Hiro activated Baymax, and turned to face the others.

“Okay. What happened?” Hiro started, looking at each of them in turn.

“Uh, it was awful,” Fred groaned from the floor, throwing his head back and making a whining noise.

“There were just constant aftershocks,” Wasabi clarified. “We eventually gave up on trying to stabilize most of the buildings and let them fall. It wasn’t worth it to save them anymore. So once we got confirmation that everyone in both towns had been accounted for we left. Heathcliff picked us up early this morning, and we headed straight over as soon as we got a chance to change out of our suits.”

“So you’re all okay?” Hiro checked. He couldn’t see any injuries, and he was pretty sure Baymax would have spoken up if anyone was hurt, but he still wanted to know.

“We’re fine, Hiro,” GoGo sighed. Her eyes were closed and she didn’t even bother to open them when she spoke. “Just tired. We wanted to get here as fast as we could, which meant we had to get up pretty early.”

“Yes, we wanted to help you find Tadashi,” Honey Lemon added, the only one of them who looked like she had any energy left, but even she was pretty subdued. “We hadn’t heard from you in a while, so we figured you hadn’t had much luck yet, and we were hoping maybe now that we’re back we can put our heads together. Maybe you just need a new perspective?”

“A new angle?” Hiro suggested with a smirk, recognizing what she was trying to say. He shook his head, and gestured Baymax to come closer. “Maybe. Here, Baymax, show them what we’ve got so far.”

Baymax dutifully pulled up the information on the creature onto his chest screen, letting the others take a look. Once Hiro was sure everyone was up-to-date, he started pacing the room, explaining what he’d learned in the days they’d been apart. The others sat and listened attentively as Hiro ranted about all of the running around he’d been doing, all of the people he’d spoken to and all of the trouble he’d encountered. Honey Lemon occasionally let out a distressed cooing whenever Hiro hit a particularly rough point in the story, but otherwise they stayed silent and let him speak.

“Basically, I’ve got nothing,” he admitted after he’d finished. “No one knows what this thing is or where it might be hiding, and I haven’t been able to find anything in my own research. I’m think that means it’s either very new, very old, or very rare.”

“Makes sense,” Wasabi agreed, rubbing at his goatee in thought. “That would explain why no one knows anything.”

“But that doesn’t help us find it,” GoGo pointed out tiredly. “So we’re still stuck.”

“I know,” Hiro agreed with a sigh, “But I’ve tried _everywhere_ , and I haven’t had any luck. If you guys have got any ideas, I’d be glad to hear it. Otherwise I’m gonna stick with my original plan of just searching the city by foot.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t sense Tadashi in the city, though,” Wasabi pointed out.

Hiro shrugged. “Maybe I missed him? I don’t know, like I said, if you have any other ideas…”

The group fell into silence for a while. Hiro wasn’t sure if they were actually thinking though, or if they were falling asleep. Well, actually, Fred was snoring, so he was _definitely_ asleep, and GoGo had her eyes closed and seemed to be breathing deeply, but Honey Lemon and Wasabi at least were still awake. Hiro didn’t bother to press the issue though, it’s not like they would be going anywhere even if the team did have the energy. They had no idea where to start looking at this point.

Baymax was just pulling the blanket off of Tadashi’s bed to tuck around Fred’s shoulders when Mochi suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. And oddly enough, he was carrying what looked like an old bamboo ladle in his mouth. The ladle was quite a bit bigger than the cat, making him look quite comical as he tottered up the steps and into Hiro’s room, but that wasn’t what caught Hiro’s attention. There was something about the ladle that was pinging his medium senses. It was no normal hishaku.

“Mochi?” Hiro called out questioningly, wandering over to the nekomata. Honey Lemon and Wasabi perked up, looking over as well, but GoGo and Fred slept on, oblivious. “What is that?”

Mochi couldn’t answer, as his mouth was full, so Hiro quickly took the ladle from him, holding it gingerly in his hands and staring at it. It was definitely something supernatural, that much he could tell easily, but beyond that, all he could sense was...wetness?

“Mochi, what is this?” he asked again, now that the cat could talk freely. On closer inspection, he could see that Mochi’s fur was all matted, as if he hadn’t had a chance to groom in a while, and his tails were lashing fitfully.

Mochi quickly hopped up onto Hiro’s desk so that they could speak face to face, and looked at him with a wild expression in his eyes. “I’ve figured it out,” the cat told him with a wide grin, looking slightly crazed. “I figured out what was happening.”

“With Tadashi?” Hiro moved closer, clutching the old ladle tightly. “How? And what does the spoon have to do with it?”

But Mochi quickly shook his head, his tails lashing even harder. “No, not Tadashi, you! I figured out what was going wrong with your powers and why they’ve been so all over the place! I’ve been looking into it ever since you mentioned they started working when you were at school, and I’ve _finally_ figured it out.”

Hiro startled, not expecting this at all. Honey Lemon gave him a surprised look as well. “You were having trouble with your powers?” she asked him curiously. “I didn’t realize. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I didn’t think it was that big of a deal?” Hiro admitted distractedly, shrugging his shoulders. “I thought it was because I’m still learning. But, you’re saying it’s something else?” Hiro looked back at Mochi, who nodded frantically.

“It is! It is! At first I thought the same, that you were just a slow learner and that was the cause, but then when you managed to search the whole city in a day, I knew that couldn’t be the cause! That’s no beginner’s skill!”

Hiro wanted to respond angrily about that slow learner comment, but he bit it back, eager to move on. “So what did you find out? What’s wrong with me?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Mochi grinned. “ _You_ were not the problem. Your _Aunt_ is.”

There was a moment of absolute silence, broken only by Fred’s loud snoring.

“What?” Hiro finally managed to choke out.

“I had just thought it was because I was getting older, and that’s why my powers were subdued, but no. No, it was your Aunt that was making everything weaker.”

“How?!” Hiro yelped. While it was absolutely baffling to think of his Aunt as anything other than a wonderful, caring, _normal_ human, he’d been through enough in the past three months since discovering his own powers to not immediately dismiss what Mochi was saying. He trusted the cat, he’d never steered Hiro wrong yet.

“She’s what we call a nullifier,” the nekomata explained patiently. “Exceedingly rare, especially in this day and age, but it’s the only explanation. Essentially no ghostly or spiritual energies can exist near her, she neutralizes them. _That’s_ why my own powers have become so weak recently, and _that’s_ why you are having so much trouble controlling yours. Because she is nullifying your powers over spirits and the dead. And that’s probably why it took you so long to see Tadashi as well. He himself would have been weakened by her presence!”

“But then we went away to Bodegawa for the weekend…,” Hiro continued, his eyes growing wider in realization as the pieces started to fall into place. “And we were away from her! _Both_ of us!”

“Exactly!” Mochi nodded with a pleased smile, just like a teacher praising a particularly clever student. “And you were free from her influence for the first time since your powers awoke. So you and Tadashi were able to recover enough of your strength that you could interact for the first time.”

Hiro took a deep breath and stumbled backwards, Honey Lemon hastily making room for him on the bed so he could sit down. GoGo didn’t even stir.

“I mean, if it’s true…” Hiro struggled to wrap his mind around this new information. All this time, he could have seen and spoken to Tadashi, but Aunt Cass had somehow made that impossible. Just the thought was like a slap to the face. How could his loving Aunt be the cause of so much pain and heartache?

“I...I’m not sure if I believe you,” Hiro admitted after a moment. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just...It’s _Aunt Cass_. She’s so _normal_.”

But Mochi just nodded sagely. “I suspected you’d say as much, which was why I borrowed that hishaku.” Mochi pointed a paw at the forgotten ladle in Hiro’s hands. “It belongs to a Funayurei, and it’s filled with their ghostly energy.”

“Funayurei?” Wasabi leaned over and whispered questioningly to Honey Lemon.

“Vengeful sea ghosts,” Honey Lemon responded just as quietly.

“If you take it downstairs, and approach her with it,” Mochi continued over the two of them, “you’ll see what I mean.”

Shrugging, Hiro decided it couldn’t hurt to at least _try_ , even if part of him still refused to believe it. So with a wave to the others, he hopped off of the bed and headed towards the stairs with the ladle clutched tightly in one fist. He could feel its energy, like dark waves crashing violently against the side of a ship lost at sea, pulsing against his fingers, and he kept his attention on that sensation as he moved down to the lowest floor and into the cafe’s kitchen.

The only person inside was Aunt Cass’ kitchen staff member, so Hiro quickly and quietly moved on towards the cafe proper, his heart beating wildly inside his chest. Even though he was pretty sure nothing was going to happen, he still couldn’t help but wonder if Mochi was right. If maybe Aunt Cass _was_ to blame for his separation from Tadashi all this time. A lump grew in his throat, and he struggled to swallow around it.

No, he suddenly thought to himself, shaking his head to clear the awful thoughts away. He refused to believe it until he got proof. Until he felt the ladle lose its energy, he refused to believe that Aunt Cass was anything but normal. He refused to believe she could ever be the cause of his separation from Tadashi. And so far he could still feel the waves crashing against wood, so it was looking like Mochi’s theory was a bust.

But then he walked out into the cafe and nearly ran into Aunt Cass as she scurried into the kitchen. The two of them stumbled to a halt, trying to stop themselves before they bumped into each other, and Aunt Cass fumbled with the tray of dirty dishes she was carrying in her arms, barely keeping it all from crashing to the ground. The two blinked in surprise at each other.

“Oh, Hiro! I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t see you standing there!” Aunt Cass quickly apologized. “Did you need something, sweetie?”

To Hiro, it sounded like she was talking through a long tube, her voice all muffled and distorted. Because at that moment, when they’d nearly collided, the energy coming off of the ladle had cut off so suddenly it was like someone had pulled a plug. He probed it with his medium senses as hard as he could, but even his own powers were all but gone. It was like they had been smothered under a thick blanket. Or like they’d been sucked away.

Oh god, Mochi had been right.

When Aunt Cass’ expression started to fall and morph into a look of concern, Hiro realized he’d just been staring at her dumbly this whole time, not speaking, probably freaking her out. Well she wasn’t the only one freaking out! But to keep her from getting too worried, he quickly plastered a wide smile on his face, hoping it didn’t look too deranged. Dangit, this is why he should have kept up the bot-fighting, he used to be a much better liar!

“Sorry, Aunt Cass, just wondering if there were any more Cat Paw Pastries left, Fred’s got a craving,” Hiro lied, glancing towards the display where they were usually kept. Sure enough the display plate was empty. Those treats always sold out fast. “Oh no, looks like they’re all gone, oh well, see you later Aunt Cass!”

Before she could say another word to him he was already off, dashing back up the stairs towards his room as fast as his feet could carry him. He was holding the ladle in his hand so tightly the old bamboo was creaking, but he didn’t care. Because it was only further confirming what Mochi had said, the feeling of angry waves returning the moment Aunt Cass was out of sight. They seemed to mimic the rolling nausea in his stomach.

When he arrived back in his room, GoGo and Fred were awake again, and from the looks of it the others had filled them in while he was gone. They all looked up at him when he entered, but their greetings fell mute when they saw the look on his face. Without speaking to them, Hiro crossed the room with short steps and every so carefully placed the hishaku down on the desk next to Mochi.

“I’m sorry,” the nekomata told him quietly. “I didn’t want to believe it either. But you must understand, she doesn’t mean to do it. She doesn’t even realize what she is. Please don’t be angry with her.”

“I...I know. I’m not angry,” Hiro said softly. Every inch of him was tense, trying to hold in his sudden flux of emotions, but he wasn’t angry. He wasn’t sure _what_ he was feeling, frustration, disbelief, sadness, maybe even mild amusement, but he wasn’t angry. He knew Aunt Cass, he knew that if she’d realized what she’d been doing to him and Tadashi all this time that she’d be horrified, and blame herself, so he _couldn’t_ be angry. But that didn’t stop him from being upset that Tadashi could have been with him all this time, if not for her.

But she wasn’t why Tadashi wasn’t with him _right now_ , and that’s what Hiro needed to focus on. They needed to find the creature that took Tadashi. And to do that, he needed to be able to access his powers.

He looked over at Fred, who immediately looked back in understanding.

“Can I stay with you for a few days, Fred?” Hiro asked anyways, for politeness sake.

“Yeah, sure little dude. In fact, why don’t you all crash at my place for a few days? Keeps us all together while we’re looking.”

The others nodded in agreement, and Hiro nodded with them.

“Yes, that might be for the best,” Mochi agreed sadly. “Once your powers have recovered, your search area might become bigger as well, maybe it will help you look if Tadashi or this creature are outside of the city.”

“Okay guys. Sounds like we’ve finally got a plan,” Hiro announced. “I’ll go talk to Aunt Cass, make sure it’s okay with her. Baymax, can you start packing some things for me? The rest of you, I’ll meet you at Fred’s place.”

Their plan settled, the group dispersed, heading out towards their respective tasks. Mochi, now that his news had been delivered, picked up the hishaku in his teeth again and escaped out the bedroom window, presumably to return it to its proper owner. Baymax stayed behind and started waddling around the room, picking up random articles of clothing and inspecting each one carefully with his cameras, trying to decide what ‘things’ Hiro might need packed.

Hiro himself practiced smiling as he headed down once more towards the cafe, knowing that he had to convince Aunt Cass that everything was absolutely fine before he left. But in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but feel like there was a clock ticking down somewhere in his brain. He wasn’t sure what would happen when it hit zero, but something told him that he absolutely did not want to find out

+++

Tadashi was not a happy ghost.

He was beaten and scratched, bleeding glowing plasma from a dozen different wounds. They would heal eventually, of that he was certain, but by the time they did the creature would return and inflict new ones. And then, once it had finished tossing him around like a ragdoll, screaming at him until his ears bled and demanding that he helped it with its revenge, it would climb out of the fissure and seal him in darkness once more, where he could do nothing but sit and wait and wonder.

Frankly, he was sick of it. At this point, the creature’s abuse was becoming more annoying than anything. Sure, it hurt like the dickens, but he was already dead. None of his injuries were ever permanent, and after repeated beatings, he was becoming used to sensation of a dagger-like beak tearing into him, used to the sting of talons piercing his ghostly flesh. If anything, it seemed like his wounds were healing faster and faster each time. The only thing he just couldn’t seem to become desensitized to was the screaming, but even then the creature only screamed at him sometimes. The rest of it he could handle.

And after learning that so long as he was moving around and making his own noise, Tadashi hadn’t been bothered by the darkness at all. Even better, his hitodama were starting to recover more and more quickly after each attack, which meant the dark periods where they were too small to provide him any light were becoming shorter and shorter. All in all, Tadashi was less of a battered prisoner locked away in a dungeon and more of an annoyed brat on forced time-out. He was restless, waiting for the chance to escape, and it burned under the surface of his skin like electricity.

So the next time the boulders overhead scraped away, revealing the creature’s horrifying face and blank staring eyes, Tadashi didn’t flinch back or tuck himself away. No, he stood firm in the middle of the crevice, glaring up at the creature with his hands on his hips.

“ **Hello, medium,** ” the creature started speaking to him with its usual multitude of voices, looking far too smug, as usual. “ **Are you ready to** \- ”

“Shut up,” Tadashi snapped, cutting the creature off mid-sentence. Its beak actually dropped open in shock, but Tadashi didn’t pause, practically humming with pent-up energy and emotion. “Just shut up. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I’ve told you over and over, I’m not a medium, I’m _dead_. You should realize I’m dead by now because I’ve definitely been down here a week at least without food or water. I. Am. A. YUREI.” He punctuated each word, trying to make things as clear as possible.

“And as I’ve also said repeatedly, I can’t help you, and more importantly I _won’t_ help you. So just...,” Tadashi’s shoulders slumped, his head dropping down in exhaustion from constantly having to repeat himself. “Just let me go, okay?”

He had hoped that the creature would finally see reason, but just like every time before it sneered at him and shook its head grotesquely. “ **I have told you that I won’t listen to your lies! You will help me!** ” it roared. Then, its beak hanging open threateningly, it brought one glowing bulbous eye close to Tadashi’s face. Tadashi could see himself reflected in the yellow surface, and he was shocked to see how ragged he looked. He felt so energized and ready to fight, but his body was still littered with signs of the creature’s abuse.

“ **I will teach you to fear me,** ” the creature told him in a menacing voice, a growl rumbling low in its throat. It raised a talon high above its head, ready to bring it scything down on Tadashi’s body.

But Tadashi had reached his limit, and he refused to play punching bag again. All of his rage, all of his frustration, all of his fears and worries and exhaustion and _anger_ built up, adding to the buzzing energy just beneath the surface of his skin until he was practically _shaking_ with it.  
Almost by instinct, he gathered up that energy and _threw_ it with as much force as he could.

The creature slammed back against the fissure wall with a crack and a startled screech. It writhed against the stone for a moment, struggling against an unseen force pinning it in place, before it finally got its claws under itself and managed to find purchase. It whirled on him, eyes flashing like fire in rage, but Tadashi was a little too distracted at the moment to notice.

He was too busy staring at his own hands in absolute shock. What the heck was _that!?_ He knew he had the ability to control his hitodama to create fire, and he could possess Hiro and move things around if he concentrated, but he’d never done anything like _that_ before. The power itself had seemed so strange, so foreign to him, and yet somehow familiar. In fact, when he thought about it, it kind of felt like...Hiro. More specifically, it felt sort of like that time Hiro had opened the portal for Callaghan so that the ghost could pass on.

Oh god. He’d just somehow used medium powers.

“What...but...how did I...? This is impossible!” Tadashi’s hands buried themselves in his hair and tugged, the pain only faintly registering in his stunned mind. “I’m dead! I shouldn’t be able to…”

But he couldn’t deny what had just happened. He’d worked with Hiro enough since he’d started developing his medium powers to know them when he saw them. He just didn’t know _how_.

A dark chuckle made Tadashi look up sharply. He’d somehow actually forgotten that the creature was there for a moment in his shock, which he was quickly realizing was a mistake. The creature was looking at him with a triumphant expression, and its laughter was only building as he looked up at it, finally breaking into a full blown howl. It sent chills down Tadashi’s spine.

“ **I knew it** ,” the creature crowed, “ **I _knew_ it. I could see right through your lies, _Medium_!** ”

Tadashi’s heart sunk like a stone. “Oh no,” he whispered to himself.

The creature _grinned_ at him. “ **I’m never letting you go, now** ,” it told him smugly. “ **You’ll never escape me. Just admit defeat. You’ve revealed yourself to me, and I will never be fooled by your words now.** ”

“I...no,” Tadashi said quietly, shaking his head to clear the lingering stupor. He couldn’t afford to be distracted right now, he needed to focus on getting away. He could figure out what had just happened later. “No,” he repeated more firmly. “This doesn’t change anything.”

The energy from before had been drained out of him with his accidental attack, but he could feel it building up again inside of him, filling him up like a cup of water, starting to overflow. If only he could figure out how to repeat what he’d done before, maybe he could stun the creature long enough that he could climb out of the crevice and make a run for it.

The creature seemed to know what he was thinking though, because it didn’t bother to stick around. “ **I will let you think some more on it,** ” it told him softly, condescendingly, “ **now that your lie has been revealed. Perhaps you will be more agreeable when I return** ”

“I doubt it,” Tadashi muttered at its retreating back, but the creature ignored him. With one last flick of its long snake-like tail, it disappeared over the lip of the crevice. Shortly after the boulders were shoved back in place, and Tadashi was once again alone. At least the creature hadn’t had time to attack him this time around, so he was in relatively good shape.

The only problem was that the energy was still there, bubbling up inside of him. And it wasn’t going away. Tadashi tried getting up and pacing, tried jumping up and down, tried dancing, even tried creating another blast of power again, but nothing he did seemed to be making any dent in it. And it just kept building. Growing stronger and stronger.

For the first time since his death, Tadashi remembered what it felt like to burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MUAHAHAHAHA! Thus the revelations begin! I have no idea if anyone saw that coming or not, but hey, now y'all know why Hiro couldn't see Tadashi before! One mystery down! Aaaaaand one more now added :P
> 
> What's going on with Tadashi NOW? Don't worry, all will be revealed...eventually :D


	7. What a Brush With Death Has Shown Me

Aunt Cass hadn’t been thrilled to hear that Hiro would be away from home _again_ so soon, but with a careful application of Hiro’s best puppy dog eyes, she’d caved eventually. However, she insisted that she drive him and Baymax over herself, so he had to wait until she closed the cafe for the day before they could head over. That meant by the time he arrived, it was far too late to start hunting, and so instead it turned into an impromptu sleepover party.

Heathcliff provided a dazzling array of snacks and drinks, and they sat up half the night just hanging out and tossing theories between themselves about what the creature could possibly be. Over time they got more and more wild as they ran out of reasonable theories and just started guessing at random, until Wasabi was suggesting it was some kind of alien, and Fred kept trying to insist it was some sort of screaming death bird from the ancient past that had come back to the land of the living for revenge against perceived slights. Hiro and Honey Lemon were laughing too hard to respond, but GoGo threw handfuls of popcorn at them both.

They’d all crashed in their sleeping bags sometime around two in the morning, but they were all up bright and early the next day thanks to Fred’s alarm clock suddenly blaring the He-Man theme song. With a collection of groans, they’d all stumbled into the manor’s massive kitchen for a quick breakfast before throwing on their suits and heading out to search.

They’d decided to have Honey Lemon and Wasabi ride with Hiro on Baymax’s shoulders while GoGo and Fred followed below. It was more for the speed and convenience than anything, though Hiro also argued that way they could look high and low at the same time. They started at the edge of town closest to Fred’s place, sticking to the edges of San Fransokyo so they could search the city itself and the outskirts at the same time.

They were about thirty minutes into their patrol when Baymax suddenly let out a beep, his head swinging to the side and focusing. Hiro glanced down at the robot in confusion.

“What is it, bud?” Hiro asked, holding a hand up to his helmet to make sure the communication lines were open.

“Hiro, I am detecting signals that match those of the creature coming from that direction,” Baymax reported, pointing his finger slightly to the left of their current trajectory.

“What?!” Hiro yelped. He squinted in the direction Baymax was pointing, but he couldn’t see anything past the hills ringing the city. “Where? I don’t see it!”

“It is approximately one mile from our current position,” Baymax explained, already adjusting his flight path to intercept the creature. “We are estimated to reach it at our current speed in, two point one minutes.”

Hiro heard Honey Lemon passing on the information to GoGo and Fred below, who moved to follow Baymax’s new path, but he was too busy concentrating to pay attention to that, his eyes sliding closed so he could block out everything but his medium senses. He hoped his night away from Aunt Cass would be enough to boost his powers so he could get a better lock on the creature. He couldn’t afford to lose it again.

He threw out his senses, focusing them in the direction Baymax had indicated, and sure enough he felt something light up in his mind like a lightbulb. Though he’d been very distracted during their earlier chase, he could still recognize the familiar energy of the creature that had taken his brother. Baymax was right. They’d found it.

Still keeping his senses trained on the creature, Hiro opened his eyes again. They were focused and full of determination.

“Alright guys, this thing is definitely some kind of ghost, so make sure you’ve got specter-vision on, because it’s probably not going to be visible to you otherwise. It’s airborne, so we’ll come at it from above while GoGo and Fred come at it from below. Last time it managed to outspeed us, so we’ve got to figure out how to slow it down. Honey Lemon, see if you can throw something sticky at it, something to gum up the works. GoGo, Wasabi, if it’s got eyes, aim for those. Fred, you’re the only other one who might be able to reach it if it tries to fly off, drive it back down. Baymax and I will stay above it. Everyone ready?”

“Ready!”

“Yes!”

“I’m good!”

“Let’s do this thing!”

Hiro grinned to himself, listening to everyone chime in. Finally, they were _doing_ something. “Baymax?”

“I am ready, Hiro.”

“Okay. Let’s get this thing!” he roared, just as they swung around the closest hillside and into the creature’s path.

Just like before, initially it looked like just a bunch of shadows flying in a mass towards them, but when Hiro gave himself a chance to _focus_ on the thing, little details started to become clearer. He got the impression of churning wings, scales sliding over scales, and wide staring eyes looking up at them in surprise from the darkness. But then the creature let out a loud hissing noise and turned, faster than anything that size had any right to, and started diving downwards, trying to gain speed and lose them.

But that wasn’t happening. Not on Hiro’s watch.

“After it, Baymax!” he shouted.

Baymax was already complying, dropping so fast that Wasabi shrieked and scrambled to stay on. With gravity _and_ rocket boots working together, Baymax managed to follow after the creature quickly, and actually started to gain on it as they dove towards the city streets.

The creature didn’t like that though. Hiro thought he saw eyes glancing back to look at them and narrow angrily, but it was only a brief flash. The next second though, the creature _shifted_ , its entire body elongating and becoming long and sinuous, and dispersing the shadows it had collected around itself. For the first time, Hiro finally got an idea of what they were facing.

It looked very superficially like an asian dragon, with the long thin body covered in dark green scales and short arms topped with deadly-looking talons and a wild mane of thick fur the colour of old blood. But that was where the similarities ended. Rather than flying through the manipulation of wind currents like other asian dragons did, this one had a pair of massive bird’s wings, the dark feathers flashing in the sunlight with each powerful downbeat. Hiro couldn’t make out its face yet, but he also could tell that there was something wrong with it. That was definitely no dragon.

But that was all that Hiro had time to observe, because no sooner had the creature dropped its shadows and revealed itself than it suddenly turned, darting between two buildings far faster and smoothly than Hiro had been expecting. It moved so fast!

“Baymax!” Hiro tried to shout in warning, but Baymax was already responding to the creature’s change in course. The space the creature had ducked through was too narrow for him to fly through straight on, but he could make it sideways...barely. Hiro came to the conclusion almost at the same moment as the robot did.

“Hang on guys!” he tried to warn Wasabi and Honey Lemon, and then he was pressing himself as flat against Baymax’s back as he could go, hoping it would be enough.

“Oh no!” Honey Lemon squeaked, Wasabi letting out a high-pitched scream on the other side, and then Baymax was flipping onto his side, zooming through the gap between the buildings at full speed. The space was narrow enough that there was barely a foot of clearance on either side of them, and Hiro nearly swore when they passed below a fire escape that came close enough to whistle past Honey Lemon’s helmet fins. Then they were out, back onto the street, and Baymax was righting himself.

“Oh god, please don’t do that again,” Wasabi moaned from Hiro’s right, sounding like he was going to be sick.

“Seconded,” Honey Lemon added, not sounding much better. “Dios Mio.”

“Try to stay above it,” Hiro instructed Baymax shakily, not exactly fine himself. “We don’t want it getting away from us again like last time.”

“Understood,” Baymax agreed, still tracking the creature with his scanner. It was slithering along through the air below them, following the path of the residential street, but ducking around as many obstacles as it could to try to throw them off. Rather than follow the creature’s convoluted path around cars, telephone poles, and trees, the four of them stayed in the air, following along above but not coming any closer. They needed a clear path if they wanted to catch this thing, and right now it had too many escape routes if they tried to grab it and they missed.

However, the creature seemed to realize what they were waiting for, because it switched up tactics again. When they came upon an intersection, the creature suddenly pulled an impossibly fast u-turn, curling back and flying up over its own spine. Above, Baymax was flying too fast trying to keep up to respond in time, and they overshot the creature by a good twenty feet before Baymax could get his thrusters under them to slow them down for the turn. Hiro cursed and turned to look back, figuring that the creature would take this chance to shoot off into the sky.

To be fair, that’s exactly what the creature tried to do. But then a blue-and-orange figure fell out of the sky towards it, spitting fire and laughing, and it was forced to jerk to the side to avoid being hit. Its dodge brought it directly into the path of GoGo’s disks, which smacked it straight in the face, stunning it enough that its wings faltered, and it plummeted.

“Yes!” Hiro cheered, throwing his arms into the air in victory. It looked like GoGo and Fred had finally caught up to them.

“ _What the heck_ is _this thing?_ ” GoGo’s voice came over the comms, sounding disgusted.

“Still no idea,” Hiro responded, “but that doesn’t matter. Just keep it down, we’re coming!”

“ _Can do!_ ” Fred chimed in cheerfully, already using his superjump to leap for the creature and laughing like a kid in a candy store. GoGo was dashing up the street as well, her disk zooming back towards her, the other one ready to be thrown. They converged on the creature just as it hit the ground with a mighty crash, shaking the street and causing several of the nearby parked cars to jump.

A few car alarms went off, much to Hiro’s absent annoyance. The last thing they needed was to draw attention at this point. While the normal people of the city were tolerant enough of their superhero antics, if anyone saw them fighting apparently empty air and causing property damage they might not be so accomodating. They needed to take this thing out _fast_.

“Careful guys!” Hiro called out, just as they reached the crash site, Baymax swinging his rocket boots beneath himself to come in for a graceful landing. Hiro hopped off almost before they landed, rushing towards the downed creature, while Honey Lemon and Wasabi followed after.

Hiro looked the creature over consideringly, noting the way its sides were heaving as if it were breathing heavily from the flight. Now that he was closer, he could see that its face was some sort of distorted fusion of a human face and a bird’s beak, though that was only the closest comparison he could think of. It was slightly horrifying to look at, so Hiro quickly looked away to inspect the rest of its body. It didn’t look too injured, but he knew how hard GoGo could throw those disks, and they _hurt_. After taking a hit to the head, this thing would probably be stunned for a while. Now to make sure it didn’t go anywhere in the meantime.

“Okay,” he started, turning to Honey Lemon. “First things first, we’ve got to trap it. Do you have a chemball potion that can - ”

Hiro never got to finish his sentence because at that moment the very _not_ stunned creature burst into motion. Its long tail lashed out like a whip, knocking them all backwards hard enough to knock the air out of their lungs and leave them gasping. Hiro was incredibly glad for his helmet at that moment, because if he hadn’t been wearing it, he probably would have cracked his skull open on the sidewalk when he landed. As it was, his vision went black for a moment.

When his eyesight returned, it was just in time to see the creature whirl on Baymax and pounce. Baymax shot off a rocket fist, trying to knock the creature back, but the creature dodged it and then struck, pinning Baymax on his front, helpless. Armour screamed and wrenched as the creature started pecking at Baymax’s back with its razor-sharp beak, its talons sinking into his shoulders and arms and leaving gouges in the carbon-fibre. Baymax could only flail helplessly, his arms pinned and his legs too short to kick at the creature above. The beak stabbed again and again, driving down at the armour and trying to break through it, crashing down dangerously close to where Baymax’s chip port would be on the other side.

“No!” Hiro screamed, trying to struggle upwards despite his dizziness, but before he could manage to get up any further than on his knees there was a flash of movement and then GoGo’s disk impacted the side of the creature’s head, knocking it aside. Hiro glanced over to where the disk had come from, spotting a woozy GoGo struggling to stand using a telephone pole for support. Her eyes were narrowed though, and her second disk was ready.

The creature shook its massive head, and glared at her. For one heart-stopping second, Hiro thought it would pin her down next, and tear into her with that deadly beak. She only had armour on her top half, the creature would make short work of her if it managed to grab her. But to his immense relief, the creature seemed to have had enough fighting for one day. Instead of leaping at her, it planted both of its talons flat on the ground, turning to face them all.

It flared its massive wings, opened its massive beak, and _screamed_. They immediately all slammed their hands over their heads, even though their helmets were in the way, the scream sending spikes of pain through their brains. By the time the echoes of the scream had ended, and they were able to look up again, the creature was gone.

There was a breathless moment as what just happened sank in for each of them.

“Well, damn,” Wasabi said from his position sprawled against a bike rack. The others could only nod in agreement.

+++

Heathcliff was called in.

Hiro thanked every god, higher power, and lucky star in the universe that GoGo had managed to knock the creature away before it had managed to get too far through Baymax’s armour and damage the structures underneath, but it had been _very_ close, and Baymax’s armour was totalled in the process. And Hiro still hadn’t repaired the old set after their earlier crash landing, which meant the whole team had to be shuttled off to the cafe so Hiro could build a new set from scratch. Heathcliff, for his part, didn’t even blink at the unusual directions, simply waiting until everyone was in the limo and safely buckled in before driving off with impeccable calm.

Even though Hiro was slightly annoyed that they were heading back to the cafe _again_ when he’d only just left the night before, he still wanted to check on Baymax’s healthcare chip to make sure it hadn’t been damaged, and to do that he needed the files at home, so he couldn’t be _too_ upset. He made sure to call ahead first though, so that Aunt Cass wouldn’t be too surprised by their sudden appearance. She sounded a bit confused over the phone, but Hiro quickly made up an excuse about picking up some things he’d forgotten, and she’d chuckled in understanding. From the sounds of the background noise, the cafe was pretty busy, which was probably why she didn’t ask too many questions.

Hiro kept his goodbyes short so she could get back to work, and then hung up, passing the phone back to Fred and looking towards Baymax with a concerned expression. The robot was lying in the middle of the limo floor, his deflated body full of tears from the creature’s sharp beak, the vinyl hanging off of his carbon fibre skeleton and showing every bit of it. But Baymax was still blinking serenely up at everything, and he wasn’t showing any other signs of damage, so Hiro told himself not to get too worried...yet.

Heathcliff dropped them off around the back so they could sneak directly into the garage without walking through the cafe in their suits. Hiro went straight to work on setting up the 3D printer to create a new set of armour for Baymax, happy that he’d set up shortcuts on his system after the third time Baymax’s armour had been destroyed. Then, with the 3D printers humming to life in the background, Hiro pulled Baymax towards Tadashi’s old computer so he could check the healthcare chip for damages.

Meanwhile the others were pulling off their armour and changing into the more comfortable clothes they’d stashed in Hiro’s garage for situations just like this. Finally Wasabi threw a blanket over the lot of it in case Aunt Cass arrived unexpectedly, his motions well-practiced. They’d done this many times before, Hiro’s garage being like their secondary base after Fred’s place, so everyone knew what to do.

“How’s Baymax?” Wasabi asked after his task was complete, walking over and leaning over Hiro’s shoulder to look at his progress. Of the four of them Wasabi was the most familiar with Baymax’s coding, as Tadashi had often come to him to ask for help spotting errors, and so it was only natural for him to act as Hiro’s double-check, looking over the lines of code for any issues or mistakes.

“I think we’re okay, although I’ll want to go over this line by line to be sure,” Hiro said with a relieved sigh, though he wouldn’t fully relax until Wasabi gave him the okay as well. “Looks like that thing didn’t manage to hit his chip, though he did a number on his body.”

“Tell me about it,” GoGo snarked, lifting a piece of Baymax’s ripped vinyl skin. The tear revealed was large enough to stick her arm through. “Forget fixing his armour, look at _him_.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad!” Honey Lemon chirped, dancing around Baymax’s body to inspect the damage. “I’m sure we can fix it! Just need to throw on a few patches here and there, that’s all.”

Privately Hiro thought Baymax was going to need a bit more than a few patches, but as a temporary stop-gap, it might work. After they rescued Tadashi, though, Hiro was going to have to re-fabricate an entirely new skin for Baymax. He sighed, already dreading it. He _hated_ sewing.

“There should be some vinyl scraps in that bin over there, and I’m pretty sure Tadashi kept the sewing supplies on the shelf above” Hiro gestured towards the indicated area. Honey Lemon immediately darted over, humming under her breath, eager to get to work. “GoGo, if there’s not enough vinyl to patch everything, can you get the smaller holes with the duct tape?”

GoGo just raised her eyebrow and popped her gum at him, as if offended that he’d even needed to ask, before heading towards the stack of duct tape in the corner of the garage.

“Anything you want me to do, little man?” Fred asked from his position sitting on the smoking remains of their old couch. They still hadn’t bothered to replace it since Tadashi had accidentally set it on fire, too busy with other things.

“Yeah, here,” Hiro pulled a file out of the data on Baymax’s chip and with a flick of the mouse moved it to a second computer screen. “Here’s a picture Baymax managed to get of the creature. Now that we have a better idea of what it looks like, maybe we’ll have more luck with the research. You know all kinds of crazy trivia, does it look like anything you recognize?”

Fred frowned at the image on the screen, taking in all of the details with the concentration of a scientist trying to solve the mysteries of the universe. After a moment of making increasingly loud thinking noises, he finally shrugged and threw his hands up in the air.

“No idea,” he confessed. “But maybe I can find something.”

“Use my computer,” Hiro pointed at the computer in question, turning back to Wasabi and waiting for the physicist to finish looking the code over. Fred himself waited until the computer booted, and then with a crack of his knuckles he put his English Major research skills to work and started looking for answers about the mystery of the creature’s identity.

The five worked in silence for hours, each deeply absorbed in their respective tasks. It could have been any other day in the nerd lab, each of them doing their own thing, but still enjoying the company of others. It wasn’t until nearly dinnertime that they were finally jolted out of their work by a knocking sound on the door.

They each looked up, startled, to see Aunt Cass standing tentatively in the doorway, her hand still raised from knocking on the garage doorway. In her other hand was a stack of pizza boxes, visibly steaming. Her expression was hesitant, as if she wasn’t certain she was welcome.

“Hey, guys!” she greeted them, giving them all a weak smile. “Sorry to burst in like this, I’m sure you’re busy, it’s just you’ve been down here all day, and I’m pretty sure you skipped lunch. So I brought you all some pizza. It’s extra pepperoni and sauce, your favourite.”

Hiro felt his heart stutter a little in his chest.

“Aunt Cass…” he trailed off, not sure what to say. It was just _too confusing_ to be around her right now! He knew, he _knew_ it wasn’t really her fault that she messed with his powers, that she’d blocked him from seeing Tadashi, but he couldn’t change the fact that she _had_. Even now, he could feel his medium senses dulling in her presence, like she was a black hole coming too close to a sun and sucking away all of its light. But then she just kept _looking_ at him with that sad, hopeful expression, the one she’d worn almost daily in the days and weeks after Tadashi died when he’d holed himself up in his bedroom away from the world, the one he’d hoped to never see again.

She’d stolen Tadashi from him, though, and she had no idea what she’d done.

But then Hiro realized what he was thinking, and he wanted to slap himself. This was his _Aunt Cass_. He loved her, he couldn’t keep resenting her for something she couldn’t control. Not after everything she’d done for him. Swallowing thickly, Hiro pushed down all of those thoughts as deep as he could, and forced a smile onto his face.

“Hey Aunt Cass, your timing is perfect, I’m _starving_ ,” he told her with the widest grin he could manage. And for once he was happy to find it didn’t actually feel that fake.

Aunt Cass seemed to sense his good mood, because her own expression brightened as well, and she stepped into the garage confidently, dropping the two pizzas on one of the workbenches that was relatively clear.

“Here you go, guys! Freshly delivered!” she announced, resting her hands proudly on her hips. The rest of the group perked up at the smell, each abandoning their tasks to come closer.

“Oooh, green peppers!” Honey Lemon cheered as she opened up the second box and grabbed a slice. GoGo and Fred were right behind her, while Wasabi took a slice of the pepperoni instead. “Thank you!”

“Yeah, thanks Ms. Cass!”

“Thanks.”

“Thanks, Aunt Cass,” Hiro said quietly as he grabbed a slice of pizza, “for everything.”

Aunt Cass’ breath hitched, and she stared at him with wide eyes. Then, before he had a chance to say anything else, she suddenly pulled him into a tight hug, squeezing him to her chest so hard he couldn’t breathe. But when she pulled back, he was the one to grab her and hug her again.

“Last hug,” they whispered together. Hiro grinned into her shirt, ignoring the sounds of Honey Lemon and Wasabi cooing behind him. Jerks.

Then he let go, grabbed his pizza and shoved half of it in his mouth in one bite. Wasabi gave him a disgusted look, but Fred gave him a thumbs up. He couldn’t help it, that was just how he and Tadashi ate pizza, by opening wide and eating as much as possible without choking. He didn’t remember which of them had started it, it was just their ‘thing’. Well, _his_ ‘thing’, now. Tadashi didn’t exactly eat anymore.

But to his alarm, Aunt Cass didn’t immediately leave now that she’d delivered their dinner. Instead she moved deeper into the garage, looking at their various projects with a curious expression.

“What happened to Baymax?” she asked as she looked the robot over. Thankfully Baymax was powered down while they were repairing him, because otherwise he might have told her _exactly_ what had happened to him. As it was, Honey Lemon and GoGo were stuck answering her instead.

“Uuuuh,” they both glanced at each other, looking for a good excuse.

“Freak accident at Fred’s house!” Hiro squeaked, jumping out of his chair so fast he nearly knocked the pizza out of Wasabi’s hands, and rushing over. When Aunt Cass looked over to him, startled by the sudden outburst, he laughed and tugged at his hair, going for contrite. “Whoops. You know how it is, we get a little crazy and then all of the sudden Baymax ends up, uh, fighting a lawnmower. Yeah.”

“O...kay,” Aunt Cass drawled out, giving her nephew a weird look. But thankfully she seemed to buy the story, or at least be reluctant to ask more questions, because she just shook her head. “Well, I’m just glad to see that old tablecloth is finally being put to use. The floral print looks very cute on him.”

Honey Lemon giggled weakly. “Heh heh, yeah, we...thought so...too.” She gave Aunt Cass a wide smile, patting the patches she and GoGo had made from a set of floral-print vinyl tablecloths they’d found in Hiro’s stash when the leftover vinyl from Baymax’s construction proved to be insufficient. The result was a mish-mash of patterns and colours patching all over Baymax’s body like some kind of abstract art piece, mixed in with the occasional spot of duct-tape, courtesy of GoGo.

“And what about you, Wasabi?” Aunt Cass asked, moving on to the next student. “What are you working on?”

Hiro bit his lip fitfully as he followed in Aunt Cass’ wake. He knew she would have no idea what she was looking at on the computer screen, so there wasn’t any risk of her recognizing the fighting data in Baymax’s code, but Wasabi was a very bad liar. She might ask the wrong questions and he would just spit everything out. Even now Hiro could see the sweat beading on Wasabi’s forehead under his usual headband.

“Uh, just...doin some...computer stuff,” Wasabi told her cautiously, his eyes darting from side to side, trying very hard not to look back over his shoulder where Aunt Cass was standing. So long as he didn’t make eye contact, maybe she would lose interest and go away.

Sure enough, she just reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “You keep on with that...stuff, then,” she told him encouragingly. “But make sure you take a break at some point. Staring at all those numbers and symbols all day can’t be good for your eyes.”

“Can do, Ms. Cass,” Wasabi promised with a shaky thumbs up. Hiro let out a silent sigh of relief as she once again moved on.

“And Fred!” Aunt Cass greeted cheerfully, “What about you? I know you’re not working on anything science-related, right?”

“Nope! Just doin my own thing!” Fred agreed brightly, casually leaning forward and contorting his body to block the computer’s screen with his body. It left him in an awkward position that did not look comfortable at all, but it got the job done. The screen, and the image of the creature splashed across it, was pretty much hidden from view.

But not enough, apparently. Hiro’s heart nearly stopped when Aunt Cass let out a small gasp and darted over, pushing Fred out of the way to reveal the picture of the creature. The image had been taken by Baymax when they had been flying overhead, and it was actually a very good shot considering they had all been flying at high speeds at the time. The creature was fully extended, green scales flashing in the sunlight, with its wings flared out mid-downstroke. It was looking back up at them in the picture as well, revealing the hooked beak and one glowing eye.

“Oh my gosh, where did you get this picture?” Aunt Cass asked Fred desperately. “It looks so _real_.”

Fred spluttered, trying to recover the situation. “Well, I - ”

“Did they make a movie recently? Oh man, where was this twenty years ago? This would have been _perfect_ for my report.”

“Wait, what?” Hiro jolted, looking at his aunt in confusion. He suddenly had no idea what was going on, but it almost seemed like Aunt Cass _recognized_ the creature. “What report?”

To his further surprise, Aunt Cass ducked her head and blushed, playing with the ends of her hair a bit. “Well, it seems a bit silly _now_ ,” she chuckled, embarrassed.

“Aunt Cass?” Hiro asked again, completely confused. Aunt Cass looked over at him, and her expression softened a bit. With a sigh, she pulled over one of the spare stools and took a seat, shifting to get comfortable. The team all unconsciously leaned closer, recognizing a long story when they saw one.

“Well, like I said, it was over twenty years ago now - god I’m getting old. Shortly after...shortly after Tadashi was born, your parents decided to move to San Fransokyo to be closer to their work, and to be closer to me so I could babysit.”

Hiro sat himself heavily down on the ground in front of his Aunt, staring transfixed at her face. He’d never heard this story before. Most of what he knew about his parents had come from Tadashi, but he couldn’t have remembered these earlier stories, and so Hiro had never known them. And Aunt Cass so rarely talked about them. When she did, she always got a very sad and melancholy look on her face, so he and Tadashi had learned not to ask. She was already always so stressed, they didn’t want to add to it. But now here she was, telling him about them. That melancholy expression was coming back, but at the same time Aunt Cass looked fond rather than sad. Her eyes glazed and her hand came up to play with the pendant around her neck as she lost herself in the memory.

“I remember your dad calling me, telling me the news. I was so excited, the moment I hung up I danced around the kitchen like an idiot, scaring poor Dango,” she laughed softly at the memory of her old cat, the one who had lived with her before Mochi. “I hadn’t really had a chance to see my brother in _years_ , other than a brief visit when Tadashi was born. So I was very happy to have him home again.”

“But your mother, well, she’d never been to San Fransokyo before. I didn’t know her very well yet, but I remember your dad telling me that she’d grown up in the quiet countryside, in a very traditional home, and that she was a bit intimidated by big cities.” Here Aunt Cass smiled secretly to herself, as if remembering a private joke. “Well, she ended up taking to San Fransokyo like a fish to water, but that was after they arrived.”

“I wanted to do something nice for my sister-in-law, and I knew from talking to your dad that she was very interested in traditions and mythology, so I thought I’d put together a little something, to welcome her and to kind of introduce her to the area. I figured I’d make her a book of all of the mythology and urban legends of San Fransokyo, so maybe it would feel more familiar to her. Well,” Aunt Cass chuckled to herself, “I might have gone a little overboard with my idea. I spent the month before they moved here researching all of the local legends I could find, going from the library to the university, even to the temples! I scoured the city trying to find every single thing I could. And then when I had everything, I put it together in a scrapbook.”

“I stayed up until four in the morning putting that thing together so it would be ready in time for when they arrived, and I probably looked like death warmed over when the showed up on my doorstep the next day, but I finished it,” Aunt Cass told them proudly. “And the look on your mother’s face made it all worth it. She _loved_ it.”

Then Aunt Cass’ face furrowed into a frown. “The one problem I had, though, was finding pictures of everything. I had all of these notes, but it made the book really boring, so I tried to put in as many drawings or paintings as I could find, not that there were a lot. But if I’d had _that_ picture,” Aunt Cass pointed to the screen, and the image of the creature, “it would have definitely gone into the scrapbook.”

“Aunt Cass,” Hiro spoke up, licking his lips. His throat was suddenly very dry. “Do you know what that thing is?”

“Hmm? Oh, of course! It was one of my favourite stories, full of tragedy and ghostly revenge. That’s an Itsumade.”

Hiro went very still. Here it was, here was the answer he’d been searching for all _week_ and it had been _right under his nose_. He felt like a fool, but how was he supposed to know that Aunt Cass had somehow known all of this stuff about the supernatural!

But then he shook his head. He needed to stay focused, this was _an_ answer, not _the_ answer. And he knew just where to find the rest of it.

“Aunt Cass, do you still have that scrapbook?” Hiro asked her desperately, coming up on his knees and resting his hand on her leg. When she looked a bit startled by the intensity of his question, he backed off a bit, rubbing at his nose and laughing to try to ease the tension. “Sorry. It’s just, uh, _Fred_ has been trying to do a...report on this...Itsumade, and he’s having a bit of trouble finding anything. Maybe your notes might help him?” Hiro finished weakly, shrugging a bit and hoping he wasn’t coming across as completely crazy.

Thankfully Aunt Cass was well used to his weirdness by now, because she simply started scrunching up her face in thought. “Actually...yes, I definitely saved it, after all of the work I put into it. I think I have it on a shelf in my room. Or maybe the closet. Hang on, I’ll go get it.”

She hopped off of the stool, heading out to do just that. The team waited in silence, not daring to even breathe until they heard the sounds of her heading back up the stairs into the cafe. Only when they heard the jingle of the bell above the door indicating she was gone did they dare to move. The garage became a flurry of motion as everyone dropped what they were doing and instantly rushed over to Fred and the computer.

“Quick! Quick! Search for it!” GoGo ordered, nearly slapping Fred’s hands out of the way when his typing was too slow for her.

“How do you even _spell_ that?” Fred asked frantically, even as he pulled up the search engine in a new tab.

“It-su-ma-de,” Hiro rolled the syllables in his mouth, trying to figure out the spelling based on the sounds. “Try I-T-S-U-M-A-D-E,” he instructed.

Fred’s fingers were trembling so badly that it took him a couple of attempts to get the spelling right, but he hit enter with force. Everyone’s hearts were beating strongly in their chests, hoping that they’d soon know exactly what they needed. The page loaded...and their faces fell.

“Well _that’s_ not it,” GoGo groaned. The first page of results was nothing but links to Japanese-English dictionaries, and a couple of song lyrics. “Try adding ‘myth’ after it.”

Fred complied, but the next page of results was similarly sparse. There was a single link to a blog that looked promising, but when they clicked on it, all it could tell them was an Itsumade was some sort of ghostly creature associated with death. Nothing that they didn’t already know.

By the time Aunt Cass had returned with her scrapbook, they’d tried all of the combinations of ‘Itsumade’, ‘myth’, ‘legend’, and ‘story’ that they could think of, but they kept getting the same results over and over. So when Aunt Cass plopped the old scrapbook down on top of the empty pizza boxes, they were desperate.

“Here you guys go, try not to damage it,” Aunt Cass told them with a pained smile. “I put a lot of work into that thing, and it was one of your mother’s prized possessions. If you need me, I’ll just be up in the cafe, the evening rush has started and I left poor Marco running the cash all by himself.”

She left just as quickly as she arrived, waving at them over her shoulder. The team immediately rushed over to the scrapbook the second she was gone, staring at it like a starving man looks at a banquet.

The scrapbook was old, looking like it had definitely come from 20 years ago based on the pattern and colours on the cover. When they carefully peeled back the cover, the pages inside were stained and faded with age, the careful penstrokes in Aunt Cass’ messy writing running in some places where the paper must have gotten wet. There was a little note in the beginning, addressed to Hiro’s mother, with a few sentences written out in shaky kanji. Aunt Cass must have looked it up just for this, because as far as Hiro knew she’d never actually learned to speak Japanese beyond a few basic phrases. At the bottom of the letter there was an old picture of Aunt Cass and a man who must have been Hiro’s father, looking much younger and posing in front of the San Fransokyo Bay. Hiro so desperately wanted to take a moment to read over the letter, to go back in time and bond a little with his history, but he didn’t have time for it. Tadashi was still waiting for them, and he’d been waiting far too long already. Besides, he could always ask Aunt Cass to borrow the scrapbook again later.

So with careful fingers, he started flipping through the old pages one by one, eyes darting over each heading, searching the images for the Itsumade’s form. As they flipped through, he spotted several creatures and myths that he was familiar with, who he’d come to know since becoming a medium, but there were also several he didn’t recognize. He made a mental note to look through the scrapbook again at a later date, in case these myths and legends _did_ pop up like the Itsumade had, and started causing trouble.

“Wait!” Honey Lemon suddenly shrieked, her finger slamming down on one of the pictures. Sure enough it was an old blurry ink drawing of a snake-like creature with a beak and bird’s wings. The drawing was crude and smudged, and very hard to make out, but when Hiro looked at the title at the top of the page, there it was in Aunt Cass’ careful handwriting.

Rather than try to have everyone read it all at once, Hiro started reading the passage aloud, his eyes darting over the page as if he could somehow absorb it all faster.

“The Itsumade is believed to be a type of Onryo formed from the spirits of the lost people of the village of Ocaido. In the late 1700s, there was a shortage of food in the area due to the settlers being unfamiliar with agriculture and the growing conditions of the land. This increased distrust between villages and towns, and cause a lot of friction between different districts. Then, some time within the 1770s, there was an earthquake that struck much of the Giso River territories. While many of the towns and villages were affected, it is believed that a fissure opened up directly underneath Ocaido, burying the town alive. Because of the hostilities at the time, none of the nearby townships went to investigate, and so the disappearance went unnoticed for quite some time. There are scant records of the event itself, only that when a trading caravan went through where Ocaido was supposed to be weeks later, they could find no sign of it, only a massive fissure in the ground where it had once stood.

However, years later, legends began to crop up in the nearby towns. People claimed that if you went near the site, and leaned down over the fissure, you could hear the screams of the people below, begging for food, for help. Over time the nature of these claims changed, taking on several variations, but by the time of the early Japanese settlers, it had settled into the legend of the Itsumade.

Early Japanese settlers claimed that those foolish or unlucky enough to visit the fissure where the town vanished would sometimes hear a single voice crying out “Until when?”, or “Itsumademo?” from deep within the fissure. They believed this was the cry of the fallen, wondering how long it will take until help came for them. But they would also claim that if anyone was foolish enough to look directly down into the fissure, close enough that the monster could reach them from it’s prison in the earth, all they would see is glowing eyes in the darkness, and then the Itsumade would release its horrible scream, killing the person instantly. The Itsumade would then devour its victim whole, trying to slake its unstoppable hunger, the hunger of those who died of starvation, trapped in the fissure when no one would come to save them.

Eyewitness accounts of the Itsumade’s appearance vary, depending on who you’re speaking to, but it’s generally agreed that the Itsumade looks like a giant winged snake with a sharp hooked beak. This was the best image I could find.”

The last note included an arrow pointing to the smudged drawing, but Hiro was more concerned with the words on the page. It was a lot to take in.

“An Onryo,” Wasabi finally broke the silence. “ _Another_ one?”

“Onryo is a word for any kind of ghost or spirit that tries to take revenge on the living,” Honey Lemon tried to point out. “It’s a pretty general term.”

“I still don’t like it. I’m still having nightmares about the last Onryo.”

“Oh, Woman **up** ,” GoGo snapped, rolling her eyes. “We’ve improved a lot since then, we can handle this.”

“Besides, Tadashi needs us,” Honey Lemon added.

Wasabi sighed. “I know, I know. But, just...why now?” he asked fretfully. “From the sounds of that story, the Itsumade’s been trapped in its fissure for centuries. What’s it doing in San Fransokyo _now_?”

It took a moment, but then the answer hit Hiro all at once.

“The earthquake that hit Bodegawa!” he gasped, his eyes widening in realization. “If the earthquake was running along the same fault line as the one that destroyed Ocaido, it might have widened the fissure enough for the Itsumade to break free.”

“And now it wants revenge on the living,” Fred added darkly in his over-dramatic plotting voice. “Believing itself to be abandoned by humanity, it now seeks to destroy those that left it to die.”

“...actually, you’re probably right,” Hiro was forced to admit, glancing at the scrapbook again. “That sounds just about right, based on what we know.”

Fred immediately brightened, dropping the super serious expression. “I know, right? It’s like something straight out of the Evil Perished series!”

“Does it say anything about how to stop it?” GoGo asked, checking the next page to see if there was any more information.

“There’s a note here about one man managing to escape alive, but Aunt Cass wasn’t sure how valid the story is, because it might have been referring to a different creature,” Hiro read the little footnote near the bottom of the page. His brow furrowed deeply in thought. “But maybe, just maybe…guys? I think I have a plan.”

“Awesome!” Fred cheered, throwing his arms over Hiro and GoGo’s shoulders. Hiro smiled at his exuberant friend, while GoGo just gave him a flat look and blew a bubble. “Are you ready for this? It’s time to be superheroes again, takin’ on the bad guys!” GoGo rolled her eyes, but Hiro nodded, staring determinedly at the sketchy image of the Itsumade in the scrapbook.

“You’re right Fred, we have an Itsumade to hunt,” he told them firmly. With that, he pulled himself away from Fred, walking back towards the computer and Baymax’s waiting chip. Once it was back in Baymax’s chest, the robot’s eyes blinked open, and there was a comforting whirring sound from his chest as he started to reinflate. Hiro watched his friend slowly reactivate with a grim expression, his mind already turning towards their next steps.

They had work to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! MORE answers to mysteries! Looks like we've finally got a name for the nasty creature that's been causing so much trouble. But there's still more trouble to come >:D
> 
> PS for those who would like to avoid spoilers for this fic, we recommend you do not look up anything about the Itsumade. It won't spoil any major plot points, but it might ruin one of the scenes coming up if you look up the original legend. If you don't care about spoilers though, google away! :)


	8. Giving up the Ghost

Finding the Itsumade the second time was a _lot_ easier now that Hiro knew exactly what he was looking for. The whole team stood atop the wind turbine, looking out over the city while Hiro and Baymax took turns searching the city with medium senses and a supernatural scanner respectively. When both Hiro and Baymax’s heads had snapped to the side at the exact same time, they knew the Itsumade had revealed itself. Hiro readjusted the long, thin bundle in his arms and nodded to the others.

They took flight. The team was silent, uncharacteristically so as they moved out, each taking their usual places clinging to Baymax’s armour. But this was not a normal mission. Usually they found trouble and confronted it head on, but this time they weren’t protecting anyone, or trying to stop a crime in progress. They were hunting.

As they flew through the city, heading towards where they’d detected the Itsumade, a shadow suddenly appeared behind them, just out of sight, following along silently in their wake.

Their first stop was the roof of an old convenience store in one of the smaller residential areas, the sloped surface covered in chipping clay tiles. Here, Honey Lemon hopped off, landing lightly on the flat part of the roof. She waved up at them while they shot off again, before ducking and hiding behind one of the guardian gargoyles that perched on each corner. For a moment, the gargoyle came to life, responding to the presence of the intruder, but when it saw that Honey Lemon was no threat to the residence below, it quickly returned to its stone form.

Next, they dropped Wasabi on top of a nearby apartment building, the tallest thing in the suburban district. He took position, saluting them when he was ready.

Lastly, Baymax let GoGo and Fred drop down once they were close enough to the ground, and then headed back up into the sky.

“Remember the plan, guys,” Hiro told everyone over the comms as they flew away. His only reply was a nod from GoGo and a thumbs up from Fred. Then the two suddenly split off, heading in opposite directions down the dark alleys between buildings. But Hiro and Baymax were already flying away, stopping and hovering about a mile into the air, where the whole area was laid out before them. Finally, everyone was in position.

The shadow that had followed them through the city hovered nearby, slitted eyes watching them unblinkingly.

“You ready, big guy?” Hiro leaned over Baymax’s shoulder, checking on the robot.

“I am prepared,” Baymax responded calmly as ever.

“Then lets do this,” Hiro announced, readjusting his bundle in his arms. Then, taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, focused, and released his powers.

This particular trick had taken him _days_ to learn, mostly because he’d refused to believe that he’d ever need it. But Mochi had insisted it was useful, and had pressed the issue until Hiro had grudgingly given in and practiced. He couldn’t believe he was using it now, so soon after he’d been absolutely convinced it was useless.

Mochi had taught him a way to draw in all of the ghosts and death-affinity creatures in the city to him if needed. The nekomata had insisted it was an old technique ancient mediums had used as a method of self-defense, drawing an army of the dead and undead to aid them, but Hiro really didn’t think he’d ever need that kind of protection. But now, when he wanted to catch the attention of a certain Onryo, it actually came in handy. This far up in the sky, none of the ghosts below would be able to hear his call, but a flying Itsumade…

Sure enough, he felt the moment the Itsumade detected his summons and started flying towards him, despite itself. He wouldn’t be able to draw it in for long, its rage strong enough to overpower his will, but all he needed was to get it close enough for it to spring their trap. He kept his eyes closed, tracking the Itsumade with his senses, waiting for the exact moment it came into range.

It passed over the road that had been marked the border of their trap, and Hiro’s eyes snapped open.

“Now!” he shouted, just as the Itsumade came into view below him, its glowing eyes staring up at him with hatred.

Immediately GoGo and Fred were there. They both dashed out from behind the closest buildings on either side of the Itsumade, already attacking almost before the creature was in view. The Itsumade let out an angry squawk, jerking in the air to avoid Fred’s fire and GoGo’s disks. It started flying faster, trying to avoid its pursuers, but GoGo was crazy fast when she wanted to be, and Fred was unpredictable. Between the two of them, they kept the Itsumade flying dead ahead, heading straight for the road between the convenience store and the apartment building.

Wasabi could see better from his position closer to the ground than Hiro could, so he was the one to announce the next signal.

“Get ready!” he told Honey Lemon over the comms, one of his feet going up on the railing of the fire escape. “Fred, can you make it fly a little higher? About ten feet.”

“Can do!” Fred announced cheerfully, using the nearby buildings to bounce off of so he could get slightly in front of the Itsumade’s flight path. He released a great blast of fire directly upwards at the Itsumade as it flew overhead, forcing it to gain altitude to avoid getting burnt.

“Thanks!” Wasabi shouted, and then took a deep breath. “For the record, I _hate_ this part of the plan.”

“Just do it, you baby!” GoGo snarled at him. “You need to act now!”

Wasabi didn’t respond, too busy running the calculations of this next little bit. He applied his vast knowledge of physics, added in the environmental factors, adjusted for wind resistance, and then, when the moment was right, he moved. With a grunt, he shoved himself over the edge of the fire escape and leaped into the air. He arced in a perfect parabolic curve, just as he’d calculated, and then started falling towards the ground, gravity pulling him down faster and faster as he whistled through the air.

But just then, the Itsumade soared by underneath him, and Wasabi landed with a grunt on the creature’s back, right behind its thick mane. His hand shot out, grabbing a tuft of the wild hair and holding on for dear life. The Itsumade shrieked in alarm at the sudden passenger, and started shaking itself wildly, but Wasabi’s fear powered his grip, and he hung on tightly.

Eventually the Itsumade gave up on trying to knock him off, too distracted with avoiding Fred and GoGo, and Wasabi was able to move once more.

“They will come into position in precisely twenty point oh seconds, Honey Lemon,” Baymax reported, his camera eyes tracking the battle below and running the necessary calculations now that Wasabi was distracted. “Please prepare yourself.”

“Ready!” Honey Lemon reported. Still ducked behind the gargoyle, she started keying the necessary combination of chemicals and potion ingredients into her purse. Clutching the glowing blue orb that was spat out to her chest, she started counting down in her head from twenty.

Meanwhile, Wasabi had been clawing his way up the Itsumade’s back, choking on his fear and cursing that he was the best person to do this. Finally in place directly behind the Itsumade’s head, he activated his lightning blade on one hand, the other clutching desperately at the Itsumade’s mane. He raised the blade high above his head.

“Oh man, please work,” he moaned, and then he brought the blade down, slashing it across the creature’s eyes.

The Itsumade _roared_. It started writhing in the air, thrashing so hard it began to fall from the sky. Even with the adrenaline coursing through his system, Wasabi couldn’t hope to hold on, and he was flung loose, screaming as he fell through the air. However his screams were cut short when he collided heavily with Fred, who’d leapt up just in time to catch him before he hit the side of a brick building. The two grunted as they collided, but Fred’s bulky suit took the brunt of the impact, and he was able to land safely.

The Itsumade, furious now, stopped trying to escape, and GoGo had to skid to a halt to avoid colliding with its tail as it suddenly whipped around. Its face was revealed to them, a long gash leaking a dark ink-like fluid where its eyes once were. Wasabi’s aim had been true, blinding the creature for a few crucial seconds before it started to heal. But then it opened its beak towards them, and they could feel the air grow colder as it drew in energy to release its lethal scream.

A glowing blue orb arced through the air from the roof of the nearby convenience store, smashing against the side of the Itsumade’s face, and releasing a luminescent foam all over its beak, blocking it. The scream was cut short, choked on the foam. The Itsumade roared in fury, muffled through the foam, shaking its head wildly at the assault.

“Yes! Nice shot Honey Lemon!” Fred cheered. “Ha! In your face, ugly! Not so tough now, are you?”

The Itsumade’s head blindly whipped in his direction, drawn by the sound of his voice. It folded its wings and landed, the ground shaking wildly and its sharp talons gouging long furrows in the road, and they realized they might be in a bit of trouble.

“Uh oh,” Fred said weakly.

“Okay, we made it really mad!” Wasabi called out to the others. “Ready for the next part of the plan. Any time guys!”

Honey Lemon let out a little squeal, cueing up another chemball even as she slid down the roof towards them, but she had nothing ready to stop the Itsumade. Baymax and Hiro were too far away, hovering so high above, and Hiro was a little too distracted with unwrapping his bundle and getting the contents ready. None of them would be able to help. The Itsumade raised one talon, the deadly point catching the light of the sun, preparing to strike.

But just at that moment, the shadow that had been following them earlier appeared above them, swooping down on the Itsumade from the sky. Fred yelped and desperately jerked Wasabi and GoGo backwards as all ten thousand pounds of dragon suddenly crashed onto the Itsumade’s back, knocking it flat to the ground and causing an explosion of dust and debris. The Itsumade jerked wildly at the sudden attack, but the dragon merely drew its head out of attack range until it saw an opening, and then darted forward with its teeth bared. It sank its fangs around the back of the Itsumade’s neck and forced it downwards, pinning it against the street. The Itsumade let out another muffled cry, its body thrashing beneath the dragon, but the dragon merely adjusted its grip, trapping the Itsumade fully beneath its body. The Itsumade struggled a few seconds more, and then became still.

There was a moment of silence as everyone caught their breath.

And then Baymax hit the street right in front of the Itsumade, his wings folding away just as his rocket boots cut out. Hiro jumped down immediately after, stepping carefully out from behind the robot, watching the Itsumade warily. In his hands, he was holding a bow, with a single signal arrow nocked and drawn. The tip of the arrow was smeared with a small amount of blood, and there was a thin cut on Hiro’s arm. He pointed the arrow directly at the Itsumade, between the eyes.

“Is everyone okay?” he called out to his team. He received a chorus of groans in response, Fred, GoGo, and Wasabi more than a little battered after their scuffle. Honey Lemon looked the least scuffed up as she wandered over to their side, though it also looked like she’d had a bit of trouble getting down from the roof on her own. She quickly helped the rest of the team to their feet and lead the way over to Hiro.

Once he was sure everyone was fine, other than a little roughed up, Hiro looked up at the dragon, and grinned. He hadn’t been sure if Mochi would be able to get his message to the dragons of the city, but it looked like the old nekomata had once again pulled through. Even better, it was Hiro’s favourite dragon who’d come to the rescue once more.

“Oh man, I _really_ owe you some pastries now, don’t I?” Hiro joked to the blue scaled beast.

The dragon’s mouth was still full dealing with keeping the Itsumade pinned down, but Hiro could see the twinkle in its eye, telling him it was amused. Hiro quickly gave the struggling pair a once-over, but the dragon was longer than the Itsumade, and almost twice as big, so it seemed to be handling the Onryo just fine. The Itsumade wasn’t going anywhere. Good.

“Okay,” Hiro spoke directly to the creature. “It’s time you answered some questions for me.”

Honey Lemon, on cue, took a second chemball and threw it at the Itsumade’s beak. It broke open against the choking foam, dissolving it in seconds, and leaving the Itsumade free to speak.

Or scream, technically, but Hiro was prepared for that. The moment the Itsumade’s beak started to crack open, he drew back even harder on the bowstring.

“If you scream, I let go, and you die,” he threatened darkly. He stared the Itsumade down, unblinking, and ever so slowly, the Itsumade’s beak closed again. It watched him warily, though its rapidly healing eyes kept darting back towards the signal arrow.

“Now,” Hiro began, trying to keep his voice level and reasonable, “where is my brother?”

The Itsumade was silent, its face showing no sign of recognition. Its eyes once again flicked between Hiro’s face and the arrow, but otherwise it made no movements.

Hiro bit back a growl, his expression darkening like a thundercloud. He caught the dragon’s eye and nodded. With a snarl, the dragon’s jaw closed a bit tighter, not enough to choke, but enough to elicit a small yelp from the Itsumade. It was a warning.

“Where is my _brother?_ ” Hiro demanded again, stalking closer to the Itsumade with the bow still taught. His arms were starting to shake from the strain of keeping it drawn the whole time, but he didn’t dare relax for a moment. The creature was still watching him too intently, he didn’t trust it.

“Tell me!” he roared when once again the Itsumade refused to answer. “Tell me where you took him!” Behind him, his friends exchanged concerned glances.

But finally, the Itsumade spoke, its beak somehow curving upwards in a malicious smile. “ **I have stolen no brothers that I know of,** ” it hissed, its voice like a thousand voices all layered together, booming like thunder, and making the team jump in surprise.

“ **Perhaps you mean the Medium?** ” it asked in a falsely saccharine tone, sounding far too pleased with itself.

Hiro’s brow furrowed in confusion. The medium? But that was impossible, he was the only living medium in the country! Maybe even the world! Had this creature somehow found another and stolen them away?

Only one way to find out. “What medium?” Hiro asked roughly. “I’m the only medium around here, where did you get another one?”

The Itsumade’s eyes went a bit wide at Hiro’s declaration, and it suddenly breathed in deeply, as if it was sniffing him. “ **Aaaaaah,** ” it hummed thoughtfully to itself, testing the scent on its tongue. “ **Perhaps then _you_ are the Medium I detected that day. Hmmm, perhaps that boy was not lying after all. But then again, that power...**.”

Hiro’s blood ran cold, not liking the sounds of that. “What boy? What day? Tell me what’s going on, damn it!” he shouted, stomping his foot. He knew it was childish, but he couldn’t help it. This creature had kidnapped and held Tadashi hostage for _days_ , and now Hiro was getting the impression that it was _him_ the Itsumade had been after all this time. Oh god, what if it was _his_ fault that Tadashi was gone?

The Itsumade let out a low chuckle, rumbling like distant thunder in its chest. “ **I recognize you now. You were the boy I saw on the day I stole the Medium. Only it seems I grabbed the wrong person, didn’t I? It was _your_ power I sensed on that rooftop. Such a pity. It seems the little human I snatched was worthless after all.** ”

“Where _is_ he?” Hiro growled through clenched teeth. His grip on the old bow was so tight the wood creaked beneath his fingers, but the weakness in his arms was all but forgotten now. “Tell me where you took him.”

But the Itsumade ignored him, its gruesome smile growing wider. “ **Damn, so it seems all my efforts to break him were for naught. And it was coming along so nicely. I was so sure he would soon accept my demands, and help me gain my revenge on this horrid city. But I guess it didn’t really matter.** ”

“Your efforts to _what_?” GoGo suddenly spoke up sharply, glaring at the Itsumade through her darkened helmet. “What did you do to him?”

The Itsumade’s attention turned to her next, its sightless eyes glittering maliciously, and chuckled. “ **He was very stubborn. Refused to see things my way, so I had to...convince him. I must say I’m curious now…** ” the Itsumade turned back towards Hiro, its eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “ **What do _your_ screams sound like, little Medium?** ”

Hiro was suddenly standing right in front of the Itsumade, though he couldn’t recall actually moving, and the tip of the signal arrow was pressed directly against the Itsumade’s forehead. The only reason the arrow wasn’t currently buried between the Itsumade’s eyes was because one of Baymax’s massive hands had closed over Hiro’s own, keeping him from releasing the bowstring. The other was resting comfortingly over Hiro’s shoulder, holding him back. He felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin, and he could barely hear anything through the sudden ringing in his ears. He was vaguely aware that a wind had whipped up around him, ruffling his hair into a wild mess, and that his eyes were glowing with power.

“Hiro,” Baymax called out gently, his voice just barely piercing the haze of Hiro’s anger. “Your heart rate and blood pressure have just increased dramatically, and your neurotransmitter levels are quite troubling. Please take a moment to calm yourself down.”

“Baymax, this _thing_ hurt Tadashi. It _hurt_ him,” Hiro bit out.

“I know, Hiro,” Baymax said soothingly. For a moment, Baymax’s hand tightened on Hiro’s shoulder ever so slightly, and although Hiro knew it was meant to be comforting and it was impossible for Baymax to get angry, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Baymax was just as upset as he was. It was enough to clear the last of the fog of rage clouding his vision, and give him the strength to step back, take a deep breath, and focus. With more than a little bit of effort, he regained control of his powers, reigning them in so that they weren’t blasting outward at random. He needed them to be focused right now.

“Okay. I’m okay,” he told the robot softly. Then, when Baymax stepped back, he looked the Itsumade in the eye once more. If an undead creature like the Itsumade could be killed again by a look, it would have evaporated on the breeze from the force of Hiro’s glare. But as it was, the Itsumade simply met Hiro’s gaze calmly, the smug smile still twisting its face, completely unafraid. Well, Hiro wouldn’t stand for that.

Allowing as much of his power to leak into his voice as possible, he worked compulsion into his next words. “You are going to tell me _exactly_ where you took him,” he ordered the Itsumade calmly, rage simmering under the surface.

The Itsumade’s smug expression dropped as it felt Hiro’s power wash over it, souring it quickly. It hissed angrily at him, but it had no choice. It was a spirit, a ghost. And with Hiro as angry as he was, even its own rage wasn’t enough to break his influence when he was standing this close. It had to obey him.

“ **I took him to that accursed place where I was abandoned, so that he might know my suffering,** ” the Itsumade confessed grudgingly. “ **If you can find it, he’s yours. However,** ” the Itsumade’s face twisted with fury, its eyes taking on a fever bright sheen and rolling sickly in their sockets, “ **I doubt you’ll find it. No one else ever seemed to. They all forgot us. They _left_ us to die down there, starved and thirsty. So alone. So hungry. Soooo hungry. I’m so _hungry!_** ”

The Itsumade’s voice rose to a shriek, and without warning it bucked violently. The dragon, who had relaxed when the Itsumade had stopped struggling, was unprepared for the sudden movement, and was knocked loose with a roar. The Itsumade’s tail thrashed, knocking several cars that were parked on the street onto their sides, its wings beating wildly enough that the humans were all blown backwards. Its talons clenched even as its eyes darted around the street, looking for the little medium it intended to gobble up on the spot, revenge against the living be damned.

It found him, standing alone in the middle of the street, barely supported against the gusts of the Itsumade’s wings by Baymax at his back. Hiro was clinging to the robot with all of his strength, protecting his face with one hand and squinting through the wind. The bow had fallen from his hands, knocked away by the Itsumade’s wings and his tired grip. He was helpless and unarmed.

Feeling triumphant, the Itsumade locked gazes with Hiro for a single moment, the pair mirroring each others hatred and fury, but in the end the Itsumade was the victor. The Itsumade opened its beak to scream, ready to kill, to maim, to devour.

Baymax’s rocket fist deployed.

As always, the robot’s aim was true, and the blood-tipped signal arrow clenched tightly inside the armoured glove was buried ten inches deep into the Itsumade’s chest at high speed.

The Itsumade’s eyes widened in disbelief, and the cut-off scream turned into a gurgle in its throat. It hung suspended in the air for one infinite moment, as if gravity itself was in shock, and then ever so slowly it sank to the ground. The impact of its body hitting the street was surprisingly muted, considering its size, but it still left everyone stumbling. And then it was quiet, but for the soft wheezing of the Itsumade’s final breaths.

Hiro slowly picked his way through the damaged pavement and the knocked over cars to the Itsumade’s side. He arrived when it was all but gone, it’s glowing eyes growing dimmer by the second. It glanced at him as he settled himself on his knees next to its massive head, but it lacked the strength to do anything more.

“I hate you for what you did to my brother. To me,” Hiro told it quietly after a moment, his voice low enough that the others watching over them nearby wouldn’t be able to hear him. “And I’ll never forgive you. I hate _you_. But...but the people of Ocaido? They didn’t deserve that fate. So for _them_ , and for them only, I’m going to help you pass over, okay?”

The Itsumade could only wheeze slightly louder.

Hiro took a deep breath, trying to focus past the anger and the fear and adrenaline from his latest near death experience. He felt the others drawing closer, offering silent support even if they couldn’t do much more to help him, and he was very grateful. He could hear Baymax coming to a stop next to him, standing guard over him while he worked his magic.

Now that he knew what he was looking at, and he had a chance to study it up close without the threat of being stabbed with talons or eaten, Hiro could finally see exactly what the Itsumade was made up of, and it made him gasp aloud. There were souls in there, hundreds of souls all smashed together, clutching each other with sharp nails, biting and tearing and devouring each other. They were so tangled up in each other, Hiro almost didn’t know where to begin.

Almost.

His eyes cracked open when he found the loose thread that would unravel it all, and a small smile worked its way onto his face. “Gotcha,” he murmured to himself, reaching out with trembling fingers and burying his hand into the Itsumade’s thick mane. His fist closed on something only he could see, and then he _pulled_ , yanking as hard as he could, and nearly falling over in the process.

Just like that, the Itsumade burst apart quite literally at the seams. With a noise that sounded like a hundred people crying out in relief all at once, the scales split open, cracked down the spine, and ghost after ghost poured out of the opening, rising up into the air and laughing with joy. Some of them looped through the air, or swayed like dancers, as they were finally freed from their prison of hunger and hatred. Each one looked happy enough to sing, and more than a few stopped to wave at Hiro as they vanished into the sky. They didn’t need Hiro to open a portal for them to the afterlife. They already knew where to go. The air was thick with the sound of ghostly laughter and tears of joy. 

It must have been only minutes, but it felt like hours later when the last ghost disappeared, leaving the empty husk of the Itsumade behind. Already it was starting to decompose, turning to dark ashes that blew away in the lightest wind. Soon, it would be as if it never existed.

GoGo was the one to sit down next to Hiro first, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him into her side. He was too exhausted to resist, resting his head on her arm, and sighing. His eyes slid shut.

“He’d be proud of you, if he were here right now,” she told him quietly, giving him a tiny squeeze. “You handled that very maturely. You did good.”

“Thanks, GoGo,” he whispered tiredly. “I’m just so worried. He’s been gone for over a week now. Who knows what that thing did to him.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “Tadashi’s tough, he always has been, and he’s become even tougher since he became a yurei. He’ll be okay. And we’re gonna find him. Now we know where that thing kept him. All we have to do is figure out where Ocaido used to be, and we’ll head right over and pick him up. He’s gonna be okay.”

Hiro glanced up at her, surprised at how open she was being. At some point, probably while he was dealing with putting the Itsumade to rest, she’d removed her helmet, so her face was totally exposed to him. And she was smiling gently.

“We’re gonna go get him,” she repeated. “We’re gonna save him.”

“Yeah?” Hiro asked her, drawing strength from the conviction in her voice.

“Yeah,” she agreed, smiling a bit wider.

Hiro took a deep breath, trying to draw strength from her. He was so tired, but she was right. They were going to find Tadashi, and they were going to do it now. He could sleep when they found his brother, and had brought him safely home.

With a groan, Hiro slowly started struggling to his feet. Fred spotted him getting up and quickly bounced over to help, pulling Hiro upward with more force than was strictly necessary, but thankfully his team was close enough to catch him. While Honey Lemon grabbed his shoulder to steady him, Fred helped GoGo up next.

Assembled together once more, Hiro glanced around at his team. They were battered and bruised, and they all looked like they could use a shower and a nap after that fight, but their eyes were bright and their expressions determined. They weren’t willing to wait any longer either.

“What’s the plan, Hiro?” Wasabi asked gently, but with a reassuring smile that was echoed by the rest of the team. No matter what he said, they were ready to follow him. It gave him that extra bit of energy that he needed to stand a bit taller.

“Next, we head back to my garage. We need to cross reference historical records and my aunt’s notes with maps of the faultlines in the area, see if we can find exactly where Ocaido was before the earthquake. Once we find it, we’ll find Tadashi, simple as that. We’ll head out as soon as we know where he is.”

“You are heading back into the city?” the dragon suddenly spoke up, its long neck popping up over Baymax’s shoulder. “You all look tired, would you like a lift?”

Hiro practically sagged in relief. Baymax’s fuel was probably enough to get them back to the Lucky Cat Cafe without failing again, but with five people it would be a very close thing. And he highly doubted that GoGo and Fred were eager to head back on their own.

“Yes please,” he accepted gratefully. He hoped his voice didn’t sound as whiny and pathetic to the dragon as it sounded to him, but based on the dragon’s smile it probably did. “And thank you again for all of your help. You really are a lifesaver.”

“Think nothing of it,” the dragon told them with a chuckle. “I was happy to help. Now, please, climb aboard.” It lowered itself onto its belly so that they could all climb on more easily. Once they were all safely on its back, clinging to the line of thick orange spines running down its middle, it rose to its feet once more.

“Sorry about this, big fellow,” it apologized to Baymax before gathering him up into its front claws. “You’re a bit too big to fit up top.”

“It is alright,” Baymax assured the dragon, even as he was pinned against its chest by one forepaw.

Then they were airborne, flying away from the trashed street and heading back towards the city proper. Hopefully no one would pin the blame on them for the wrecked pavement, but the city would probably be getting a surprise donation from Fred’s family soon.

Sitting furthest to the front of the dragon’s neck, Hiro’s eyes swept over the view before them, searching past the edges of the city to the countryside beyond. Somewhere out there, Tadashi was waiting for them.

“Soon, big brother. Soon,” he promised the horizon.

+++

Tadashi was sobbing.

He had no idea what was happening to him anymore. All he knew was pain. The energy had built up and built up and built up inside of him, and it needed an outlet, but the only thing around other than rocks and dirt was him. And so it had turned on him, burning him from the inside out even as it gave him more strength and power than he’d ever possessed.

The fissure was bathed in green fire. Tadashi’s hitodama had kept multiplying with every bit of the energy pouring into him, and now there were countless flames dancing above his head, coming together to create even larger infernos, and then splitting apart into a thousand tiny embers that whirled through the air until they came together once more.

But Tadashi wasn’t seeing any of this. Tadashi wasn’t seeing much of anything at all. He had curled himself up into a ball on the floor of the crevice, his nails digging into his skin as if he could peel it away and release all of this horrible burning energy into the sky. He’d long given up on screaming, his throat raw and pained, and now all he could do was sit and wait and pray to whoever would listen that somehow it would finally stop. That he would finally find relief.

The fires burned higher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um...well, at least the Itsumade is gone? :D


	9. This Famous Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Five for Fighting's "Heaven Knows"

Even though they’d just finished fighting an Onryo, the team didn’t bother to rest once they got back to the Lucky Cat’s garage. They all figured Tadashi had waited long enough. So instead Hiro snuck upstairs to drop off Tadashi’s old bow back in his room. After reading the legend in Aunt Cass’ notes about the man who’d managed to defeat the Itsumade in the past by shooting it with a sacred signal arrow, Hiro had immediately thought of the summer Tadashi had briefly taken up archery as a hobby. He ultimately hadn’t been very good at it, but he’d ended up keeping the bow as a keepsake anyways. It had been child’s play for Hiro to put together a signal arrow from the parts he had lying around in the garage, and then with Tadashi’s bow and his own medium’s blood to give the arrow an extra bit of power, he knew he had a way to defeat the Itsumade.

Hiro didn’t bother putting the bow back in where he’d found it, tucked in the corner of Tadashi’s room, hiding behind his surfboard and gathering dust. Now that he knew he could use it as another means of dealing with the dead that roamed the city, he knew he’d need it close at hand. He also made a mental note to always have a bunch of signal arrows on hand, just in case. They might come in handy in the future.

His task complete, he headed back to the garage to check on the others, pausing to grab some coffee and snacks for everyone on the way while Aunt Cass was busy with the cafe. When he returned with a tray held tight to his magnetic gloves, the team minus Baymax were already deep in their work.

Wasabi had pulled out a massive sheet of drawing paper and was putting together a map of all of the faultlines in the vicinity, looking for areas of earthquake activity. He squinted at several maps he had spread out next to him, measuring distances with a ruler and compass, and then making careful annotations on his own drawings. Hiro was pretty sure he was even colour coding the faultlines based on which he figured were the most active.

GoGo and Fred had each taken a computer, and were working through different methods to find any information about Ocaido. Fred was putting his English Major research skills to use, searching through as many resources as he could think of, whereas GoGo was dutifully digging her way through census data from the past hundred or so years with a frustrated expression on her face.

Honey Lemon had taken a seat surrounded by Aunt Cass’ scrapbook, Tadashi’s book of Japanese Mythology, and her phone, constantly looking between the three and jotting down information on a sparkly pink notebook. Her brow was furrowed as she worked, and Hiro could see her pause every few moments as she translated between Japanese, English, and her native Spanish in her head, trying to keep track of everything.

Hiro patted Baymax’s arm as he walked past the robot standing attentively in the garage doorway, keeping an eye on everyone while he stood in his charging station. Baymax blinked at Hiro as he passed, but nodded appreciatively when he saw the snacks Hiro had grabbed included a couple of vegetables as well as cookies and coffee. Hiro dropped the tray carefully on a free surface, snatching up one of the cups of coffee for himself before the college students could descend on the tray like a pack of starving wolves.

Honey Lemon, who was closest, grabbed one of the other cups and brought it up to her lips, sipping it carefully and blowing on it when she realized it was too hot. With her free hand, she gestured Hiro over at the same time, humming happily into the mug. Curious, Hiro wandered over and glanced down at her scribbled notes, shaking his head a little when he saw that she’d been writing in a glittery gel pen. Sometimes he wondered about her.

“Here, Hiro, look at this, you might find it interesting,” she told him conspiratorily, pointing at a couple of the things she’d jotted down. “I’ve been doing a bit of research, and I’ve noticed something. Look at the dates of the legend.” She pointed to a few things in Aunt Cass’ notes, and then pulled out Tadashi’s book. “And compare it to the time frame of these legends. Oh, and this!” She practically shoved her phone in his face, displaying what looked like a research paper on Japanese mythology.

“Okay,” Hiro nodded, glancing between all of the pieces of data. “And what does it mean?”

“The Itsumade legend more closely resembles the kind of stories and myths that popped up later in this decade, see? And if you consider when the Japanese started immigrating to this area, I think I narrowed down the time frame for when the Itsumade might have formed to roughly 1772 to 1775. That’ll help Wasabi, because he can start looking into earthquakes prior to that, right? And GoGo can narrow down her search too!” Honey Lemon let out a pleased little squeal and danced in her seat.

Her good mood was contagious, and Hiro grinned along with her. “Good job, Honey Lemon! Let’s tell the others!”

GoGo practically cheered when they told her, grateful that her search window had been narrowed to three years instead of the ten plus she’d been working with before. Wasabi had instantly tossed away about half of his notes and started scribbling away at his map even _more_ intensely, a feverish look in his eyes and a gleeful grin on his face. He was making progress as well. Fred simply saluted at them before casually closing a bunch of tabs he had open, but otherwise not reacting. Hiro and Honey Lemon high fived, and then wandered away to discuss Honey Lemon’s research on the other side of the garage where they wouldn’t distract the others.

Not even ten minutes later, GoGo let out a strangled noise and jerked Fred over to her computer by the back of his shirt. He let out a startled yelp, but when she practically shoved his face into the screen, he went without complaint.

“Is that it?” she asked hurriedly.

Fred squinted at the screen, trying to make out the words on the page. It was a scanned image of an old wrinkled document, the original copy of a 1774 census, written in ink on torn and stained paper, and the words were so cramped and faded they were hard to make out. But Fred had studied worse writing his history papers, so he quickly found what she was referring to. There, in the middle of the page, was the information they needed.

_Ocaido, population 463_.

Fred looked up at GoGo and _grinned_. “You got it girl.”

She paused long enough to fistpump and high five Fred, and then the two of them scurried over to Wasabi’s map. Hiro and Honey Lemon immediately looked over, perking up at the sign of activity.

“1775,” GoGo said, slamming her hands down on the table in front of the physicist. It was a sign of how much Wasabi was used to her brisk manners that he didn’t even flinch at her sudden arrival, merely looking up and raising an eyebrow. “It had to have happened in 1775,” she repeated. “The town still showed up in census records in late 1774, so it was after that.”

Wasabi’s eyes widened, and he started looking over his map. At once, his expression cleared, and one thick finger slammed down on a single red circle he’d drawn to the north of San Fransokyo.

“There,” he said triumphantly. “This was the only earthquake on record in that year big enough to wipe out a town. _And_ it’s on the same faultline that runs under Bodegawa, which makes sense if _that_ earthquake woke up the Itsumade. I knew it had to be somewhere around there, I just wasn’t sure where on the faultline we were looking!”

“You guys found it?” Hiro asked, his eyes darting desperately over the map as he and Honey Lemon walked up.

“We’ve got it,” GoGo announced triumphantly, her eyes burning with an inner fire that was matched by the rest of the team. “Suit Baymax up, we should head out as soon as he’s ready.”

Hiro didn’t need to be told twice. Almost before she was finished speaking he was rushing about the garage, gathering up pieces of armour and making sure that the fuel for Baymax’s rockets were topped up. It was going to be a long flight.

+++

By the time they landed, Hiro’s legs had been starting to go numb from the long time travelling stuck in one position, and he was beginning to suspect they should have taken a rest stop on the way over. When he disengaged from Baymax to drop to the ground, his knees had given out under him and he’d fallen into Fred. The older boy had barely caught him in time, still woozy himself.

The team took a moment to orient themselves, looking over the landscape before them. Just ahead they spotted a strange formation of rocks. It looked like a long trail of boulders that had been placed almost along a line. There was no fissure in sight.

“That can’t be a good sign,” Wasabi commented, jerking his thumb towards the boulders. “There is no way that’s natural.”

“Maybe that’s what was originally sealing in the Itsumade?” Honey Lemon offered, looking a bit uncertain.

“Can’t be,” GoGo said with a shake of her head. “If those boulders were sealing it in, how did it get out if they’re still there?”

“Is there even a fissure here?” Hiro asked, starting to walk forward.

“My maps are _perfect_ ,” Wasabi informed him with a sniff. “Trust me, there’s a fissure here.”

“But is it the right one?” GoGo pointed out. “We must have flown over a hundred different cracks and crevices flying out here, how do we know it’s _this_ one?”

“Something is interfering with my spirit scanners,” Baymax reported. “I am not able to detect any supernatural activity in this area.”

“Yeah, my helmet’s scanner isn’t working either.”

“Hiro? Little dude?” Fred called out, keeping an eye on Hiro as he walked closer to the boulders. “Maybe it’s time for a little mojo. Give us an idea of what we’re dealing with?”

“Hmm? Oh!” Hiro jolted, only paying half attention to their discussion, but at Fred’s suggestion, he immediately focused. “Right. Good idea.”

He stood just a few dozen feet from the line of boulders, his team fanned out behind him as support. Hiro paused for a moment, his breath catching in his throat as he was suddenly overcome with nerves. His powers had been so inconsistent since this whole mess had started, what if they failed him now, when he really needed them? What if this wasn’t the right place, and they’d flown all the way out here for nothing? What if Tadashi really _was_ already...gone?

But when he glanced back over his shoulder at the others, all he could see was love and support in their eyes. Honey Lemon grinned at him, Wasabi gave him a gentle smile, Fred showed double thumbs up, and GoGo nodded. His eyes finally landed on the last member of his team, and Baymax looked straight back at him, no judgement on his expressionless face.

“You can do it, Hiro,” Baymax said, somehow knowing exactly what Hiro needed to hear.

No matter what, they were here for him. So, drawing strength from that, Hiro took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let his medium magic pour out of him.

Almost immediately, he could tell that they were in the right place. There was something about the area that just _pulsed_ with energy, even the line of boulders resonating with the same power. There was something about the energy that struck him as familiar, like he should recognize what he was sensing, but it was nothing he had ever encountered before so he wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Deciding he could puzzle out the mystery later, he pushed his senses further.

Sure enough, there was a fissure before them, sealed off by the boulders. The boulders seemed to block his powers somehow, so he couldn’t really sense much beyond them, but when he pushed himself to the limit he managed to sneak a small tendril of power down through the cracks into the crevice below.

His eyes flew open.

“He’s here,” Hiro announced. “He’s here!”

Behind him, the others started cheering and laughing, but he cut them off with a wave of his hand.

“He’s here, but something’s wrong.”

“Wrong?” Honey Lemon repeated, coming closer. She rested a comforting hand on Hiro’s shoulder. He hadn’t realized he was shaking. “What do you mean? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Hiro admitted, looking up at her, his eyes wide with desperation. “Just...wrong. We need to help him, we need to open up the fissure, _now_. Baymax!”

The armoured robot immediately stepped forward, the others moving aside to give him room.

“Rocket Fist,” Hiro instructed, trusting that Baymax would know exactly what he meant.

Sure enough, Baymax raised one clenched fist, took aim, and let the rocket-powered projectile fly. Seconds later, the largest boulder resting over the fissure was reduced to rubble exploding outwards as the fist crashed through it at high speed. The team flinched a little at the explosion, but they were far enough away that they weren’t hit by the flying fragments of rock.

Hiro wanted to dash forward the moment the fist returned to Baymax, but Honey Lemon’s grip on his shoulder kept him from running. There was a moment of dead silence while the dust settled, the team waiting until they could see clearly before they moved towards the crevice.

“Hiro!” Baymax suddenly called out in warning. “It-it’s no-o-o-o-ot-t-t-t s-a-a-a-a-”

Fire. Fire everywhere.

Green, unnatural flames came bursting out of the fissure, rising into the air in a column and pouring over the ground like water. The remaining boulders shattered from an unseen concussive force from below, and the green fire scorched the earth where they’d stood. The team screamed and jumped back, barely being missed by the roaring flames. Baymax, however, was twitching and jerking, sparks flying out from his armour. Wasabi had to physically drag the robot backwards, and even then he kept making worrying noises.

A figure appeared suddenly above the fire, floating in the air. His eyes were glowing so brightly it hurt to look at him, but even still there was no mistaking who it was. Over a dozen hitodama the size of soccer balls hovered around his head and shoulders, moving in dizzying patterns that lashed out at random, like wild animals on leashes. As they watched, one of the hitodama struck out at a nearby bush. The plant was reduced to ashes in seconds.

“Tadashi,” Hiro whispered, horrified.

“Oh god, what did that thing _do_ to him?” GoGo snarled from his side, helping Honey Lemon drag him backwards. Behind them, Hiro could hear Fred swearing eloquently and rapidly. Their suits were starting to follow Baymax’s example, sparking lightly. The HUD in Hiro’s helmet was overcome with static, none of the readings making any sense. With a curse, he slapped a button on the side, powering down his suit. There was too much ghostly energy in the air, the electronics couldn’t handle it and were getting overloaded.

They slowly backed away, driven back by the heat of Tadashi’s unnatural fires. The flames licked at their boots as they kept backing up, spreading out into a sea of flickering green before them. It was like an image of Hell. And above it all, Tadashi floated closer.

“Tadashi!” Hiro screamed out, trying to be heard over the roar of the fire. When Tadashi didn’t so much as twitch, Hiro growled and ripped the helmet off of his head. Not like it was doing him much good anymore anyways. Instantly his throat went dry and beads of sweat broke out on his forehead from the intense heat. It was an all-too familiar feeling, and Hiro had to swallow down panic. The fire, Tadashi trapped inside, him standing beyond, sweating and choking on smoke, helpless to rescue his brother. But this time he wasn’t helpless, he told himself. This time he would save his brother. “Tadashi!” he screamed again, louder, his throat burning like he was swallowing knives.

“Hiro, get back!” GoGo shouted, tugging on his waist to physically draw him away. Hiro hadn’t noticed the flames getting closer, his own body leaning forward, too concentrated on his brother’s face. Tadashi’s eyes had become nothing but glowing white light, so he couldn’t tell if his brother was looking back at him or not, but that wouldn’t stop Hiro from trying to reach out.

“Let go!” he snarled, shoving GoGo’s arms away, and then the moment he was free, he stepped forward once more. “Tadashi, can you hear me?”

Tadashi’s head jerked up, his glowing eyes targeting Hiro and making him feel like a mouse before a hawk. The sheer power emanating from Tadashi kept pressing against Hiro’s senses, making it hard to breathe. But this was his brother, this was _Tadashi_. Hiro refused to be afraid.

Tadashi squinted for a moment, as if he didn’t quite recognize them, and then his mouth dropped open in a gasp. The hitodama stopped moving all at once, as if stunned. The fire lake that had been steadily spreading outwards in all directions from the fissure halted, though the flames themselves did not shrink. Tadashi floated closer.

“ _Hiro,_ ” Tadashi’s voice came to them, though his mouth didn’t move with the sound. Instead it was as if he spoke directly into their minds. Even still, his ‘voice’ was weak and thready. “ _How did you…? No, it doesn’t matter. Please, you need to get away from here. It’s not safe_.”

“What _happened_?” Hiro asked for all of them, looking his brother over. Though there was no sign of injury on Tadashi’s body, his clothes were somehow torn and shredded, stained with what Hiro recognized as ectoplasm. Tadashi himself seemed to be practically vibrating with energy, which even from a distance Hiro could feel pouring off of him in waves to crash against Hiro’s senses. Even the Onryo, ancient as it had been, hadn’t possessed this much power. “What did that thing do to you?”

“ _It wasn’t the creature,_ ” Tadashi confessed, his expression forlorn. “ _It was an accident. I did this to myself._ ”

“You did this to yourself?” Hiro repeated incredulously.

“How?” Wasabi asked, his eyes darting nervously between where Tadashi was hovering and the fires all around them. With their suits shut down, the team would usually have to rely on Hiro to tell them what was happening, because they couldn’t see ghosts. But with the amount of energy he was currently wielding, Tadashi was appearing to them as a glowing wraith wreathed in flames floating above. The ghostly fire which surrounded them was also perfectly visible. They were all starting to sweat, and their thick armour wasn’t helping.

Tadashi actually looked ashamed for a moment. “ _It’s...it’s a spirit well,_ ” he gasped out, shaking his head as if to clear it. “ _At least, I think it is. It must be. Large concentration of spiritual energy. Lots of power. I...I didn’t realize...I didn’t know...and I...absorbed it all? Somehow? Don’t know how. Too much power. Didn’t mean to, didn’t realize I was...my head hurts._ ”

As if in response to his headache, the sea of flames suddenly rose higher, like cresting waves. The team shrunk back. Baymax let out a worrying fizzle.

Tadashi spat out a curse and waved his hand downward at the flames. They shrunk lower in response, but not much.

“ _I’m sorry,_ ” Tadashi told them sadly. “ _I can’t...control it. Too much. Too much everything. It’s...it hurts, I can’t....breathe. There’s no where for it to go. Except me. Feedback loop? No ghosts, can’t...do anything. Only me. Only me and it hurts. Too much. I can’t...I can’t…_ ” He trailed off, sounding more and more desperate until he couldn’t speak anymore. All he could do was wail in their heads, the sound the most heartbreaking thing they’d ever heard.

“Oh god, what do we do?” Honey Lemon moaned, her hands over her mouth and her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

“ _We_ can’t do anything,” Wasabi pointed out darkly. “All of our equipment is fried, and even if it wasn’t, what are we supposed to do? Attack him?”

They all fell silent as they realized what that meant.

“Hiro. I’m sorry man, it’s all on you,” Fred told the youngest sadly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’re here if you need us though. Just tell us what you need.”

“I…” Hiro looked desperately between them and Tadashi. Even as he watched, Tadashi’s hitodama started to move again, swirling in larger and larger circles around his head and body, moving so fast some of them looked more like rings of fire. Tadashi hissed in pain as two of them crashed together, forming an even larger ball of fire for a split second before breaking apart into four more hitodama. The fire was getting bigger. Tadashi wailed louder, sinking so low over the arcing flames that he could barely be seen.

“I don’t know what to do,” Hiro admitted quietly to the others. “He’s...he’s even stronger than I am right now.” Though he hadn’t realized it until he’d just said it, it was true. Hiro’s own powers paled in comparison to the amount of energy Tadashi was putting out. He was faring slightly worse than the others because he could feel the waves of energy constantly slamming into him. It was starting to make him dizzy.

“Come on guys, think. Just like Tadashi always told us. We gotta look at it from a different angle,” Fred told them firmly. “We’re all really smart people, right? We can figure this out.”

“Too much energy, he said, right? It’s like he’s a nuclear reactor going into meltdown. Too much heat, too much energy, it’s just leaking out,” Wasabi mused.

“Or like a water balloon with too much water in it! It just keeps expanding and expanding until it - ”

“Shut up, Fred, not helping,” GoGo snapped, throwing out an arm and pushing everyone back when Tadashi lost control again for a moment, a hitodama lashing out through the air towards them. Her quick reaction time meant the hitodama just missed their heads, though they felt the heat like a furnace as it passed by. The moment it was gone, the four older students all started talking at once, tossing ideas around and dismissing them almost as quickly as they were formed.

Their voices rose, adding to the roaring of the fire, until it was nothing but a cacophony of noise behind Hiro. But his attention was on no one but Tadashi.

“It’s hurting him,” Hiro said quietly, and immediately everyone shut up. “It’s _killing_ him.”

“Hiro,” Wasabi called out gently, sounding defeated. “We’re trying to - ”

“Honey Lemon,” Hiro cut him off, his back still to the others. Honey Lemon jumped at being addressed so suddenly, but she stepped forward all the same. “Our suits are pretty much junk at this point, but your potions should still work. Can you give me something to protect me from the fire? Just so I can get closer? I need to see Tadashi. I need to talk to him, up close.”

“Well I...I think I have _something_ that could work, yes,” Honey Lemon said cautiously. “But I can’t guarantee it. And it won’t last long.”

“I’ll take whatever you can give me,” Hiro told her with a sad smile. “Please.”

“O-okay,” she agreed reluctantly, reaching into the satchel she kept alongside her chemical purse. She started pulling items out of both, mixing them together with quick but steady hands, her face screwed up in concentration. It was a testament to her skill that she handed Hiro a small glass vial full of a deep blue fluid not even a minute later.

“Here,” she said as she pressed the vial into his hands. “Drink this, give it five seconds to take effect, and then you _should_ be immune to the flames. But, oh Hiro! I’m not sure about that! The potion was intended to protect you from normal fire, not ghost fire! I don’t know if it’ll work. And it’s such a small amount, it will probably only protect you for a few minutes!” The tall chemist practically wrung her hands in distress.

“I’ll take the risk, Honey Lemon. I have to. Thank you,” he told her seriously, his fist closing around the vial. Before any of them could protest further, he threw his head back and swallowed the entire contents of the vial in one pull. It went down like ice-cold pudding, and tasted of a strange combination of mint and lime, but as far as Honey Lemon’s potions went, this one wasn’t all that bad. He’d definitely taken worse. Even still, he couldn’t suppress a shudder and a small burp.

“Okay, one, two, three, four, five,” Hiro counted down, giving the potion time to take effect. Then, he turned towards the broiling sea of green flames flickering before him. “Stay back guys. His powers might spike at any moment. See if you can get Baymax far enough away for a reboot while you’re at it, his systems should be on standby mode for protection from the energy surge, but...it’s a lot of energy.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of Baymax,” GoGo promised him with a nod. “Just take care of yourself.”

Hiro simply saluted her, and with no further fanfare, he turned and walked straight into the flames. He didn’t have time to waste after all, Honey Lemon said he had mere minutes.

He held his breath as he took his first step out into the fire. He waited a moment, chest tight, for the feeling of his body burning, heat crackling his skin, his hair becoming ash. But when all he felt was a pleasant coolness, he knew it had worked.

“Yes! Thank you, Honey Lemon,” he whispered, and then he started running in the direction he’d last seen Tadashi. Even though he had no way of actually keeping track of time, nor did he know how much time he really had, he still felt like a counter had started running in his head, counting down until disaster. He ran harder.

Tadashi hadn’t moved from where Hiro had last seen him, floating in the middle of the sea of flames. The yurei was crouched low, curled up on himself and clutching at his chest, as if he was barely holding himself together. Tears were streaming down his face, which was screwed up in pure agony. Hiro wanted to scream and rage, unable to bear the sight of Tadashi in such pain. He’d never seen his brother like this before.

Without hesitation, Hiro threw himself down on his knees next to Tadashi, reaching out to steady him. His powers must have been boosted by the area as well, because to his surprise his hands encountered solid flesh, grabbing Tadashi by the shoulders and squeezing. Tadashi gasped at the sudden stimulus and looked up, his eyes burning so brightly it hurt for Hiro to look at, but Hiro barely noticed.

The moment his hand had come in contact with Tadashi’s shoulder, it was like touching a bare electrical wire. His whole body went taut as energy slammed into him, overwhelming his senses and setting his already fluffy hair on end. He couldn’t even draw air to scream.

“ _Hiro!_ ” Tadashi yelled in fear. “ _Oh god, Hiro, **no!**_ ”

Gasping, Tadashi struggled to move, trying to push Hiro away, to break contact, to somehow stop the flow of power. Even through his own pain, Hiro always came first. Thinking quickly, he shifted around so that he could brace one foot against Hiro’s chest, right between his ribs. With a huge burst of effort, Tadashi kicked out, knocking Hiro away and breaking contact.

The two brothers went flying in opposite directions, but Hiro landed gasping for air, able to breathe once more. He laid there for a moment, struggling to get air back into his lungs.

Tadashi himself was so full of energy from the spirit well, he didn’t even bother climbing to his feet. Instead he floated over, stopping far enough away from Hiro that they wouldn’t come into contact again.

“ _Hiro?_ ” he called out, sounding terrified. “ _Talk to me. You okay?_ ”

Hiro coughed, and threw his brother a thumbs up. “Just peachy,” he groaned, before finally rising to a sitting position. His hair was still puffed up like a dandelion head, but he otherwise looked unharmed. “Did you really have to kick so hard?” he whined, rubbing at his chest and giving Tadashi a glare.

“ _Sorry_ ,” Tadashi shrugged, sounding anything but. “ _Fastest way. Gotta...get you away from me._ ”

“Yeah, well. It hurt. So there,” Hiro informed his brother with a stuck-out tongue. It was enough to make Tadashi laugh briefly, but he quickly fell quiet again. He was still grimacing in pain and speaking in short, breathless sentences, which did not sound good to Hiro. A quick glance around at the fire showed that it was somehow burning even stronger than before, and when he looked back towards where the others were supposed to be waiting for him, he couldn’t see them anymore.

“Isn’t it slowing down at all?” Hiro asked.

Tadashi simply shook his head. “ _No,_ ” he said miserably, looking like he wanted to cry. “ _Keeps spreading. Keeps...getting bigger. I don’t know...if...it’ll stop._ ”

Hiro’s eyes went wide in alarm.

“ _Yeah, exactly,_ ” Tadashi agreed with Hiro’s unspoken reaction. “ _Here is...far enough...from home. But there’s...a town...not far._ ”

“How close?”

Tadashi screwed up his face in thought, trying to remember. “ _Few miles? Maybe three?_ ” he finally offered with a shrug.

“Any chance you’ll run out of power before it spreads that far?”

“ _No._ ”

Hiro sucked in air between his teeth, feeling the stress of the situation. Okay, so not only was Tadashi suffering, they were now on a time limit. Judging by how fast Tadashi’s fire had been spreading since they’d broken him out of the crevice, and if Tadashi’s distance was conservative, they had little over an hour before the flames reached the town and started hurting people. That wasn’t much to work with. And Hiro still didn’t have any ideas.

“God, Tadashi. What can I do? You’re in so much pain,” Hiro murmured, looking Tadashi over. “I thought...I don’t know, maybe I could help you siphon some of it off, but I barely even _touched_ you, and…” he trailed off sadly, realizing that his initial plan wasn’t going to work. There was just _too much power_ to work with. “Help me think of something else.”

“ _Hiro…_ ” Tadashi said sadly, his voice low and forlorn. “ _I…_ ”

Hiro looked up at his brother’s face and felt his heart stutter in his chest. Something about Tadashi’s expression was more than just pained now, more than just sad. It was _defeated_.

“No. No, no, no, no, no,” Hiro started chanting, his gloved hands grabbing at the scorched earth beneath him, trying to find something to hold onto. “No. Don’t you dare. Don’t you _dare_ say it, Tadashi.”

“ _Hiro,_ ” Tadashi repeated, this time sounding more upset and frustrated. “ _Please, just -_ ”

“ **Don’t** ,” Hiro cut him off, biting out the word like it physically hurt him.

“ _Don’t you think I’ve_ tried?” Tadashi cried, throwing his arms wide. “ _Don’t you think...I’ve tried...everything? Everything and anything? Nothing has worked! Nothing! Can’t stop it! I’ve tried!_ ”

“But now I’m here!” Hiro shouted back, angry and desperate tears building in his eyes. “This is my _job_ , ‘Dashi! I’m a Medium, the whole point is helping ghosts and spirits!”

“ _To **pass on!**_ ” Tadashi choked out. “ _You help...them pass on!_ ”

The brothers fell silent as the full weight of that statement hit them. Neither of them dared to speak for a moment, both thinking the exact same thing but neither willing to say it out loud. Both of them were reliving Callaghan’s passing, and Hiro’s role in it, in their minds. But neither could bring it up. To say it would be like signing Tadashi’s death warrant.

After a short time, Hiro spoke, his voice so low he could barely be heard over the fire surrounding them. “My fingers are starting to feel hot,” he admitted quietly. “I think the potion is starting to wear off.”

Tadashi’s shoulders slumped, recognizing the change of subject for what it was; avoidance of the issue. But he let it slide, jerking his head back towards where the others were waiting.

“ _You should...go back,_ ” he told Hiro softly, his eyelids drooping. “ _Not safe. Don’t want you… to burn._ ”

“I’m coming back,” Hiro said firmly as he climbed to his feet. Tadashi floated cautiously backward as he rose, making absolutely sure they were not going to touch again. “You hear me? I’ll be right back. I promise.”

“ _Just...be safe,_ ” Tadashi said with a nod of his head.

Hiro didn’t bother saying anything else. If he had it would have felt too much like saying goodbye. So he simply turned and ran, heading for the edge of the fire, insisting to himself that the tears running down his cheeks were because of smoke getting into his eyes, not because he was feeling hopeless. The potion was wearing off, that was all.

+++ 

When he got back to the others, he found they’d taken refuge on a shelf of rock overlooking the fire, high up enough that the flames couldn’t reach them but not so high that they couldn’t drag the malfunctioning Baymax up with them. GoGo had popped off the robot’s chest armour and was taking turns with Wasabi looking into his circuits, but other than an occasional twitch and a flicker of his chest screen switching between a picture of the Itsumade, the map of the local area, and what looked briefly like a face, Baymax didn’t seem to be functioning. They’d both immediately stopped though the moment Hiro appeared out of the flames, the tips of his hair charring slightly as the potion wore off. He climbed up next to them with Fred’s help, taking a seat on the edge of the short cliff and letting his legs dangle down over the raging turquoise flames below.

“Hiro?” Honey Lemon called out tentatively when he didn’t immediately start talking. They’d clearly expected him to come running out with a grin on his face, a brilliant solution already starting to form in his mind. His downtrodden expression had probably crushed their hopes pretty efficiently.

“Can you make me more of that potion?” he asked her, his voice rough from inhaled smoke. That was the only reason. It wasn’t because he felt like he would cry at all.

Thankfully she didn’t comment on the redness of his eyes, or his running nose. Nor did she mention that she’d already used up most of her ingredients for the first potion. She simply nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

While she started digging through her supplies, muttering chemical equations and potion components under her breath, Hiro turned back to the others.

“Well? How did it go?” Wasabi asked, even though he probably already had an idea just looking at Hiro’s slumped shoulders.

Haltingly, he told them what had happened in the fire. He told them about Tadashi’s pain, about what had happened when they’d touched, about the inevitable spread of the fire reaching out and burning the nearby town if Hiro didn’t do the unthinkable. As he spoke, he saw GoGo’s face become like stone. Wasabi turned away, his eyes to the ground, and Fred placed his suit’s head back on so Hiro couldn’t see the way his expression was twisting up in anguish. When he was finished, his throat, already sore from the smoke inhalation, was burning, and he swallowed painfully on reflex.

“Well...that’s…” Wasabi tried to speak, but he trailed off, at a loss for words.

“Oh Hiro,” GoGo murmured, reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but…” Her eyes closed for a moment, taking a deep breath to brace herself, and then she grabbed him firmly by both shoulders, facing him head on. GoGo had never been one to shrink away from horrible things. She had always tried to confront things directly, because as long as she was moving, as long as she was doing something, she felt less helpless. Now was no exception.

“We’ve been sitting here for half an hour tossing ideas back and forth and we’ve got nothing,” she admitted reluctantly. “We even thought about trying to go back to San Fransokyo for help once we got Baymax up and running again. But, we don’t have time. We don’t have time for anything at this point. Maybe…” she swallowed thickly. “Maybe this really is the only way,” she said quietly, finally voicing the one thing none of them wanted to hear.

Hiro jerked back as if she’d slapped him, but she merely tightened her grip on his shoulders so he couldn’t go far. Still, he struggled.

“Hiro,” she said sharply. “We don’t have time. We need to stop him. Innocent people are going to get hurt.”

“No,” he whispered to her, shaking his head wildly. “No, no, no, no!”

“It’s our _job_ to help people, to protect them,” GoGo continued forcefully over Hiro’s anguished cries. “We’re superheroes now. You _made_ us into this, and we can’t change that now. We _have_ to stop him!”

“Come on, little dude,” Fred tried to support her. “We...we know it sucks, but…” There was a sniffle from inside the suit that they could hear even through the thick fabric. “...those people getting hurt would suck more.”

“Besides,” Wasabi offered gently. “He’ll be okay. Tadashi’s strong, he can handle anything. Even the afterlife.”

“Guys?” Honey Lemon suddenly cut in. They all looked over to her, startled by her interjection. When Hiro looked at her, he could see her eyes were a little red, visible even through her helmet. She’d probably been listening in, and getting just as upset as him, but she’d still diligently kept working on her potion.

Sure enough, she was clutching another vial in her hands. This time it was a buttery yellow colour, and the volume wasn’t even half of the previous potion, but she held it out with shaking hands anyways.

“I’m sorry, I did what I could,” she explained carefully, rubbing her eye with her free hand to brush away the tears that were starting to leak out. “It’s not going to be quite as good at protecting you, and it won’t last as long. It’ll probably taste bad too. But it should protect you long enough to...to…”

She choked on a sob and collapsed in on herself. Fred immediately dashed over and threw an arm around her, supporting her and gently lowering her to the ground. Without care, he ripped the mask off of his head, revealing bloodshot eyes and tears streaming unabashedly down his own cheeks. Honey Lemon buried her face into his shoulder for a moment, her own body shaking with sobs. It was enough to set Wasabi off too, the bulky man sniffling heavily as he tried to keep it together.

GoGo was forced to turn away, biting her lip so hard she drew blood. _One_ of them needed to be strong here. One of them needed to be in control. And with Baymax out of commision and Hiro ready to throw a tantrum, it looked like it would have to be her. She could break down later, when no one was relying on her or watching her or needing her. With effort, she shoved her own grief down, choking on it, and reached out to take the vial of potion from Honey Lemon.

She turned to hand it to Hiro, and froze.

Hiro’s expression was fixed as one of complete despair, his eyes wide and lost, his own tears running silently down his face. Although it was always clear that Hiro was the youngest of them all, he’d never looked _so young_ before. It was enough to crack GoGo’s hard-earned armour, tears brimming in her eyes.

Wordlessly, she shoved the potion into his hands. He took it blindly, his vacant eyes coming up to meet hers.

“I don’t want to do this,” he told her, so quietly, so sorrowful. So defeated.

“I know,” she whispered back, her voice choked. “I know. But you have to.”

Hiro swallowed thickly. He nodded.

Honey Lemon looked up from Fred’s shoulder then, her face red and blotchy. “M-make sure you wait u-until the l-last...second. To drink it,” she instructed him, stuttering. “You’re...you’re not going to h-have m-much time.”

Hiro swallowed. “Okay,” he said softly.

And that was it. There was nothing more to do but head back into the fire one last time.

He didn’t remember the taste of the potion. He didn’t remember the walk back to Tadashi’s side, didn’t notice the way that he could feel the heat of the flames this time, just this side of painful. All he knew was that suddenly he was in front of Tadashi once more. And from the look on Tadashi’s face, his older brother knew exactly what was coming.

Hiro looked over Tadashi one last time, taking in as much of him as he could. He saw Tadashi do the same. They stood and stared in silence for one long moment, only broken by the crackling of the fire.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you,” Hiro whispered.

“ _I’m sorry I’m leaving you again_ ,” Tadashi responded, just as quietly.

And then there was nothing left to say. It was time to begin.

+++

The space around them was silent as the grave as Hiro began to work.

Hiro closed his eyes, already drawing up the memory of opening the portal for Callaghan. With all of the spectral energy surrounding him here, it was as easy as breathing to recall the motions, spreading his arms and sending power down into the earth, a golden glow appearing around his body, visible even in the flames. He opened his mouth, the first words of that ancient chant already falling off of his tongue, the familiar feeling of power rushing through him. The glowing chain of symbols appeared at his feet, forming a ring of pure light as they began to turn in place, faster and faster. When the symbols were moving fast enough to look like one solid line, Hiro stepped back, allowing the ring of light to rise into the air, creating the shimmering portal to the afterlife.

At this point, he couldn’t have stopped the ritual even if he’d tried. His power had overtaken him, controlling his motions and bringing everything to its end. As he watched, trapped within his own mind, the raging fires around them started to wither and die, like water had been doused over the landscape. The massive lake of fire, a mile across at its widest, was instantly snuffed out like a candle, leaving nothing but ashes and blackened earth as all of the ghostly energy Tadashi had been wielding was sucked into the portal. Tadashi’s eyes had become fixed upon the portal’s light, a look of open wonder on his face, and as he took a step forward the multitude of hitodama whizzing around his head instantly halved. The closer he got, the fewer hitodama there were until Tadashi was standing right in front of the portal with only his three original hitodama left to hover near his shoulders.

But just then, the yurei managed to wrench his gaze away from whatever visions in the portal had entranced him, to lock eyes with Hiro standing just beyond. Immediately the look of awe faded into one of confusion, as if he was waking from some sort of dream. Then shock, then fear, then despair. He tried to step away, but it seemed like he was fighting against some sort of invisible force that was dragging him forward against his will.

“Wait. I don’t want to go,” Tadashi cried out to Hiro, doubling his struggles. “Hiro, I changed my mind, I don’t want to go!”

But Hiro could do nothing but watch. The ritual had begun, and he was helpless to stop it, no matter how much he tried to fight it.

“Hiro, please! Stop it!” Tadashi pleaded as he was pulled closer and closer to the light.

Hiro’s expression was stone. “Be not afraid, Tadashi Hamada” his voice rang out, calm and even and slightly ethereal, even though all Hiro wanted to do was scream and rage and cry. “It is safe. Step into the light, and meet those that await you beyond.”

“ _Hiro!_ ” Tadashi screamed, just as he reached the portal.

Suddenly it was over. The portal, the light, the flames, everything vanished in an instant as if it had never existed.

Hiro dropped to his knees, suddenly feeling as weak as a newborn kitten, but finally free of his powers’ control. Even though he felt like he had nothing left in him, he threw out his senses in every direction, hoping, _praying_ that it had all somehow been some horrible mistake, that Tadashi had somehow managed to get free in time, that what he’d just seen hadn’t actually happened.

But he sensed nothing.

Tadashi was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D


	10. Live With Me Forever Now

“Hiro?”

There were sounds. Hiro was vaguely aware of noise. Someone calling his name. Who? He recognized the voice, but for some reason he felt like it was wrong. Like it was unexpected.

Then he decided he didn’t care. Tadashi was gone, what did it matter? It wasn’t Tadashi’s voice, so it wasn’t important.

He was on his hands and knees, staring down at the ashes that Tadashi’s flames had left behind. At least he thought he was. His vision was kind of blurry for some reason. Maybe it was because he was tired? He felt tired. It felt like his powers were completely gone, all used up by the ritual. He barely had the strength to hold up his head.

Someone was standing behind him. For some reason he got the impression they’d been standing there for a while. And trying to talk to him. Was this the person calling his name? He should probably answer them, they were starting to sound really upset, but he was just so tired. 

But then there were hands on his shoulders, pulling him upright and forcing him around, so he had no choice but to finally look the person in the eye.

“Hiro!” Aunt Cass sobbed, her fingers digging into his shoulders so hard that he could feel it even through his armour. “ _Please_ speak to me!”

“Aunt Cass?” Hiro murmured, surprise managing to break through the numbness that seemed to be permeating his entire body. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh thank god!” she gasped instead of answering him, pulling him into a tight hug. “Thank god, you’re alright. You’re alright, tell me you’re alright.”

“I…” Hiro wasn’t, but he could tell that she was already worried enough as it was, so he lied. “I’m fine,” he told her flatly. “But really, what are you doing here?”

Rather than answer, she pulled away just long enough to wipe at her streaming eyes, makeup running down her cheeks. “You can’t _do_ this to me, Hiro! You just _can’t!_ You’re all I have _left!_ ”

Hiro hadn’t seen her like this since Tadashi’s funeral. She was openly crying, heavy sobs shaking her shoulders and tears running down her face. She was absolutely _filthy_ , covered in ashes, and Hiro got the feeling she’d been kneeling right next to him, trying to get his attention for a long time. He suddenly understood why she was so upset, and felt overwhelming guilt consume him.

“Oh god, Aunt Cass. I’m so sorry. I’m okay, really. I promise.” He tried to reach out to give her a hug, but she let out a loud shriek and fell away from him, still crying.

“No! No! Don’t - just! Just give me a second,” she gasped, waving him away with a hand. “I just need a second.”

He gave her all the time she needed, afraid that if he approached her again, she’d only get more upset. He took the opportunity to look for the others, only to see them huddled around Aunt Cass’ van which was pulled up right on the edge of the field of ash, the driver’s side door still flung open. They were very pointedly not looking in Hiro and Aunt Cass’ direction, trying to give them the illusion of privacy.

“I just...what is _going **on** , Hiro?!_” Aunt Cass suddenly cried out. “What happened here? What are you wearing? Are you one of the vigilante’s the news has been talking about? What am I saying, of _course_ you are!”

She jumped to her feet and started running her fingers through her hair in frustration. Considering moments before her hands had been resting in dark ashes, it resulted in grey streaks running through her auburn. Hiro absently thought it rather fitting. She’d always told him he was going to give her grey hairs one day.

“I found those maps you left out after you all just vanished in such a hurry,” she began to pace as she talked, her hands darting through the air like frightened birds as she tried to decide what to do with them. She kept switching between tugging at her hair, wringing her hands, and trying to simply cross them. “I was worried, you’ve been so distracted lately, and all this running around behind my back. Don’t think I didn’t notice! You come home late, sneaking around, sometimes smelling like smoke and sometimes I find _blood_ on your clothes and I knew _something_ was wrong, so I decided to follow you. And then I kept getting calls from Baymax only when I tried to pick up all I can hear is static and what I thought were coordinates. Sure enough, I put them into the GPS and it brought me here!”

Hiro blinked in surprise and glanced over at the robot. Baymax was starting to come back online from the looks of it, GoGo and Wasabi checking him over, but Hiro hadn’t realized that his friend had been trying to call Aunt Cass. But why?

He didn’t have time to think about it, because Aunt Cass was still speaking. “Sure enough, when I get close enough, I find your friends out in the middle of nowhere, wearing the vigilante’s armour, and there’s _fire_ everywhere! And I couldn’t see you! But all of the sudden as I pulled up there was this light and then the fire was gone and I have no idea what either of those things were, but I saw you standing there right in the middle of it all and, oh god, Hiro, I was _scared_ , I was so _scared!_ And when I came over the light just vanished but then you collapsed and you wouldn’t speak to me even though I was calling your name and I just…!”

She broke out into fresh sobs, completely worked up as she relived her moment of fear. But this time Hiro didn’t just sit and watch. He pushed himself up past his exhaustion, reaching out and pulling her into a hug. She went without a fight this time, pressing her face into his shoulder and wrapping her arms so tightly around him he could swear his ribs creaked. But he didn’t mind. She needed this. And honestly he kind of needed this right now too.

“You’re all I have,” she whispered against his shoulder. “Please don’t do this to me ever again.”

“I know,” he said just as quietly, bowing his head into her shirt as well. “I’m sorry, Aunt Cass. I should have told you everything. I’m so sorry.”

They held each other for just long enough for the tears to slow to sniffles, and then they finally pulled away. Hiro chuckled weakly at the sight of Aunt Cass’ face, all smudged with makeup and ashes, though he knew he probably didn’t look much better.

“I just can’t believe you’re here,” he admitted quietly. “I didn’t even sense you coming, even though I should have. I mean, my powers should have cut off the moment you - wait.”

His eyes went wide as a sudden thought hit him, and his heart stuttered in his chest. “Wait. Aunt Cass. When did you get here?”

Caught off guard by the off-topic question, Aunt Cass took a moment to answer. “Uh, a few minutes ago? I don’t know, I wasn’t - ”

“Was it before or after the light stopped?” Hiro cut her off frantically. “Please, was it _before_ or _after?_ ”

“Kind of right before, actually,” Aunt Cass struggled to keep up with his questions, looking completely baffled now. “It stopped right when I reached you. But why - ”

“Oh my god,” Hiro gasped. “Oh my _god!_ ”

“ _Hiro!_ ” Aunt Cass said loudly, starting to sound worried again. “What is it? What’s going on?”

Something like hope was beginning to burn in Hiro’s chest. He reached out and grabbed Aunt Cass by the shoulders, looking her dead in the eye. “Aunt Cass, I swear I will explain _everything_ to you in a minute. But right now, I need you to stay _right here_ and _don’t move_ , okay?”

“What? But why!?”

“Please, I promise I’ll explain in a minute! Just please stay here!” Hiro instructed again. Then, without looking back to make sure she was listening, Hiro immediately started running, heading away from Aunt Cass and the others.

It had suddenly hit him why Baymax had been calling for Aunt Cass. He understood what the robot had been trying to do. Aunt Cass was a nullifier, which meant if they’d been able to get her out there in time, she could have nullified all of Tadashi’s built up energy. But like an _idiot_ , Hiro hadn’t realized how she could have helped until it was already too late, and he’d done the stupid ritual to help Tadashi pass on.

But Tadashi wasn’t the only one she could nullify. And if she’d gotten there it time...maybe there was hope.

Only so long as Hiro was around her, he’d have no way of knowing if Tadashi was still with them or not. His powers were completely cut off. So he had to put as much distance between them as possible, and see if that would be enough.

But as he rushed across the scorched landscape, his eye caught on a jagged opening in the ground. His eyes went wide. Of course! The Itsumade’s fissure! Hadn’t Tadashi said it was also a Spirit Well? Maybe he could draw on its powers to regenerate his own faster! Only, he hoped he didn’t have the same issue as Tadashi did. Even if Aunt Cass could probably fix it, he’d rather not put his friends through it again.

He skidded to a stop at the edge of the fissure, immediately crouching low to peer down into its depths. It was black as night below, the walls of stone equally burnt as the surrounding landscape, but to Hiro there seemed to be something more to it than just a hole in the ground. There was something _there_ , like a noise just beyond his hearing.

Acting on instinct and praying this didn’t bite him in the ass, Hiro reached out to the weird feeling, and felt something reach _back_.

_Power_. Amazing, exhilarating _power_. Hiro’s hair was instantly standing on end and he could feel his eyes glowing like stars. But rather than let it overcome him, Hiro reached into himself and _grabbed_ it, picturing that stupid floppy fish in its pond suddenly finding itself inside a huge sea. He felt the waters try to rush over him and consume him, so he built himself a dam, stacking up mental walls and fortifications to trap the power within himself and keep it contained. He had a feeling that if Mochi could see him right now, the nekomata would be impossibly pleased with his development, although there was just something about being near the Spirit Well that seemed to make his medium powers come naturally to him. No wonder his ancestors had flocked to such areas if they made them so effortlessly strong.

Only when he was sure he had filled himself up with as much of the Spirit Well’s power as he could take, and that the power was well contained enough that he wouldn’t lose control, did he allow himself to turn around. At some point he’d closed his eyes, probably when he’d started picturing that mental fish in the pond, but they slowly opened again now, looking out over the landscape.

He could see Aunt Cass still standing where he’d left her, watching him with wide eyes. Beyond her, the rest of the team was still waiting next to the truck, but they were all looking over at him now as well, their faces twisted in concern and confusion. But Hiro was only interested in Baymax, who was the only one not looking at him. Instead the robot’s head was turned to stare at something standing slightly to Aunt Cass’ left.

Hiro took a deep breath, feeling his powers swirling inside him, and then looked over.

He was running before he even realized it, running faster than he thought he’d ever had. His vision was blurry with tears again, but this time he was also grinning wide enough to hurt his face. Suddenly nothing mattered more than getting to the person hovering weakly at Aunt Cass’ side, faint and fuzzy, but _there_.

As Hiro reached the others and flung himself at the flickering shape, his brother’s arms coming up to meet him, he faintly heard Baymax speaking to the others.

“Tadashi is here,” the robot said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come on, you guys didn't REALLY think we'd off poor Tadashi, did you? :D
> 
> So thus, we are pretty much at the end of the story. Just the epilogue to go. It's been a blast getting to write for this 'verse again, and having the chance to expand on some characters that didn't get the chance to shine last time. We hope you've enjoyed this fic, and we'll see you all in the epilogue!


	11. The End

“Hiro! Mrs. Matsuda’s here!” Aunt Cass shouted up the stairs, listening for the sounds of Hiro stirring above. Sure enough, a few seconds later there was a quiet curse followed by a muffled thump as Hiro fell out of bed.

Shaking her head and huffing with quiet laughter, Aunt Cass returned back down to the living room where the old witch was sitting on the couch, sipping at a cup of tea. Mochi sat on the floor at her feet, lapping at a saucer of cream with his twin tails curled tightly against his side. Against the far wall rested a massive mortar and pestle, even though there should have been no way they should have fit through the door into the room.

“He’ll be a few minutes,” she reported with a laugh.

“This new blend is absolutely lovely,” Mrs. Matsuda told Cass as she joined the pair, grabbing a teacup for herself and a sugar cookie. “I must say. I really feel rejuvenated.”

“It’s all thanks to those raskovnik leaves you brought me to mix in,” Aunt Cass replied cheerfully. “They work wonders, I swear. I’ve never had so many happy customers. Well, I’ve never had so many customers in general, really.”

“The late hours aren’t bothering you, then?” Mrs. Matsuda asked, finishing off the last of her tea.

“Well, I’ll admit it’s taking some getting used to,” Aunt Cass said thoughtfully. She nibbled on her cookie, and then placed it down on the saucer of her teacup and shrugged. “But it’s only an extra hour a night, so it’s not so bad. And everyone seems to like the new menu. I’m even getting used to the glasses.”

“Yes, it is quite impressive that Hiro managed to shrink down that specterscope technology so small,” Mrs Matsuda hummed with a smile. “Although I’ve heard that’s something of a specialty of his. But yes, I’ve heard nothing but good things about your Lucky Cat Cafe Witching Hour. The fairies have been gossiping about it non-stop, and the kitsune are almost as bad. Why, just the other day I swear I even heard one of the local dragons talking about placing orders through the goblins, seeing as they can’t fit in the cafe themselves!”

“Honestly, I still can’t quite believe I’m serving coffee and baked goods to...ghosts and monsters and stuff,” Aunt Cass admitted hesitantly. “But really. After finding out about Hiro and Mochi and you...and _Tadashi_. I guess it’s just...something I’ll have to get used to.”

“And you’re doing a marvelous job,” Mrs. Matsuda assured her, reaching over to pat Aunt Cass on the hand comfortingly. Mochi looked up from his cream long enough to give Aunt Cass a nod of agreement, before bending his head once more. “Most mortals I find tend to mostly scream and cry when confronted with the world beyond the veil. You’ve handled yourself with such grace and dignity.”

“Yeah, well. You weren’t around for the screaming and crying,” Aunt Cass admitted ruefully. Mochi snorted cream up his nose and started sneezing harshly. The two women briefly abandoned their conversation to make sure the nekomata was okay, and then resumed. “Honestly. My voice was hoarse by the time I was finished shouting at Hiro. It was bad enough with the running around behind my back and becoming a superhero, but to find out about what _else_ he’d been up to? I mean, yes, suddenly some things about their mother made a lot of sense in hindsight, and it’s nice to know that Hiro hasn’t gotten back into bot fighting, but I’m just _worried_ you know? It sounds like the things they get up to are very dangerous. Even if Tadashi is still around in a way, Hiro is all I really have left.”

“I understand,” the old woman said with a sigh. “I had children myself, long ago.”

“You did?” Aunt Cass couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh yes. I ate a few of them, of course, but those were different times. Even still, you always worry about them, no matter what they get up to. That never changes.”

Aunt Cass paused a moment at Mrs. Matsuda’s off-handed but unnerving comment, before shaking it off and deciding she didn’t want to know. Instead she leaned forward and stared down at her hands. “He’s all grown up now, isn’t he?” she murmured quietly to herself. “I never really worried about Tadashi like this. He always seemed more responsible, more grown-up. I suppose it wasn’t really fair for him, he never really got the opportunity to be a kid like Hiro did. I needed his help too much. But I’ve gotten used to Hiro being my little boy, even when Tadashi was...gone, and now...he isn’t my little boy anymore. He’s all grown up and saving people and...I just don’t know how to handle this.”

Mrs. Matsuda seemed to consider this for a moment, before leaning down to Mochi and giving him a hard look. “Go and see what’s taking that boy so long, won’t you?” she asked the cat, though they both knew it wasn’t really a request. With a haughty sniff that only cats are truly capable of, Mochi abandoned his cream to waddle his way towards the stairs.

“Now. Listen to me,” Mrs. Matsuda told Aunt Cass the moment Mochi was gone. “You have nothing to be worried about. You have done a fine job raising him. He may be more of a man than a boy now, but that’s thanks to you. You and Tadashi. You’ve done well by him, and it shows. He’s a good person, and you should be proud of him.”

“I am, I am _so_ proud of him,” Aunt Cass said, so heartfelt that tears gathered in her eyes. “I’m so proud of _both_ of them.”

“And you have nothing to fear. They are well protected. They are beloved in this city because of who they are, and they are who they are because of you. You’ve helped them become the men they are today, and because of that, should any harm befall either of them, there would be hell to pay. Look at what happened with Tadashi! The dragons were up in arms! The Kappas were willing to break an age-old tradition of mistrust with the trolls to help search for any sign of him! I myself returned from the old countries as fast as I could, though I was too late to be of much help. They are _protected._ ”

“Maybe. But what about when they’re just doing their regular superhero stuff?” Aunt Cass couldn’t help but ask. Her hands were locked together tightly, and she squeezed them reflexively as she fretted.

“As if anything could get past those friends of his. They willingly faced down an Onryo to support him, _twice_ might I add. And if they can’t protect him, that robot will. And if not _him_ , then - ”

Mrs. Matsuda was cut off by the sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs. Hiro rushed into the room, nearly tripping over Mochi who lead him in his haste, and came to a halt in front of the two women. His hair was unbrushed, his shirt wrinkled, and his socks didn’t match, but at least he was dressed this time. Mrs. Matsuda looked him over and cackled.

“Ready, then?” she asked, pushing herself to her feet with a creak of old joints. “About time.”

“Sorry, we were out late last night dealing with a fight between a yuki-onna and a wendigo that almost got messy until Fred got involved and basically distracted them with sign-flipping tricks for ten minutes, and then when we got in Tadashi and I ended up staying up and talking for a while, and Baymax needed some tune ups, aaaand…” He took in her raised eyebrow, the way her gnarled old hand was clenched on the back of the couch. “...and you probably don’t care about any of that. Anyways, I’m here. _We’re_ here,” he corrected quickly, jerking his head towards his right.

Taking the hint, Aunt Cass grabbed her ever-present glasses and slipped them on. Giving the technology a moment to boot up, she aimed her eyes to where Hiro had gestured. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the glasses formed a target over the space, and a stream of information scrolled across the glass, identifying the presence as Tadashi. The glasses could just barely make the three hitodama visible, as well as a faint outline.

Hiro told her that the first prototypes of the specterscope couldn’t even see that much, and could only target supernatural creatures. Now that he’d managed to miniaturize the technology, his next step was making it so that normal people could see exactly what he could. It was a work in progress.

For Cass, who thought she’d never get the chance to see her eldest nephew again, even the fuzzy outline was the best thing she could have ever seen.

Adjusting the glasses so that they sat straight on her nose, Aunt Cass rose out of her own seat. She kept her distance, though, knowing that it had been a while since Hiro had flown out with Baymax to the spirit well to recharge. She didn’t want to take away his powers right before a lesson, after all.

“You’ll be good for Mrs. Matsuda, won’t you?” she asked Hiro warningly. “I don’t want to hear about another exploding potion incident. I don’t care how Honey Lemon does it, you follow Mrs. Matsuda’s directions next time.”

Hiro rolled his eyes good-naturedly, giving Aunt Cass a look. “One time, it happened _one_ time. Besides, Tadashi was distracting me.”

“Yes, well. Tadashi had better be on his best behaviour as well.” Aunt Cass gave a pointed look to Tadashi’s blurry outline. She saw him duck his head sheepishly.

“He says he will,” Hiro translated faithfully. “Besides, Mrs. Matsuda always keeps us in line.”

“You’re damn right I do,” Mrs. Matsuda sniffed. “None of this willy-nilly training that old furball had you going through. You’re learning _real_ magic now, not your natural medium powers. You can’t get by with raw talent anymore.”

Mochi looked rather offended at the nickname, but didn’t say anything. Aunt Cass knew it was for her benefit, and was pathetically grateful. She was still slightly in shock about the beloved family pet cat turning out to be an ancient and powerful creature that had served a clan of human mediums for centuries, the talking was a bit more than she could handle. So Mochi respectfully kept his mouth shut around her. For now.

Hiro groaned. “Aw, man. Mrs. Matsuda, you’re working me to the bone. I _swear_ I’m trying.”

“I know it might be a bit hard for you, considering how easily things come to you sometimes,” Aunt Cass spoke up, giving Hiro a tight smile, “But I’m sure you’ll be just fine.”

Hiro tilted his head to the side for a moment, as if listening to someone speaking, and then a wry grin grew on his face. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he admitted slowly to the space beside him. Then he looked up at Aunt Cass. “Tadashi is just being his usual cheesy self. You know how he is. And thanks Aunt Cass.”

“I can imagine,” she said, and she honestly could. She could practically hear Tadashi saying ‘we’re not giving up on you’ and for a moment she pretended she actually _had_ heard it.

“Well then, have you got everything?” Mrs. Matsuda cut in, squinting at Hiro. “Spellbook? Potions? Chalk?”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” Hiro answered. “ _And_ I remembered the pewter goblet.”

“Very good. We’d best be off then, we’re already running late. Not to worry, though, my dear,” she patted Aunt Cass on the shoulder as she headed towards the mortar and pestle leaning against the wall. “I’ll have him back in time for the witching hour. I know you’ll be busy and can use the extra hands.”

“Thank you,” Aunt Cass said. Then, to her nephews, “Be good boys! Learn lots of good magic!”

Hiro waved at her as he helped Mrs. Matsuda carry the mortar and pestle down the stairs towards the back door, the old stone somehow fitting easily between the walls even though moments ago they would have been too wide by a foot at least. The old hag was heckling Hiro about his thin bony arms while Hiro shot back sarcastic retorts. Used to this, Aunt Cass simply started gathering up the used teacups and leftover cookies, humming softly to herself.

She was a nullifier, or at least that was what Hiro had told her, and therefore she shouldn’t have been able to feel any ghostly energy. It should have been sucked up around her without her even noticing. But there was always something about Tadashi that was different. She somehow just always knew when he was around now.

Which was why when she stood up and turned around, she knew he would be standing there behind her. Sure enough, Hiro was in the middle of the room, his eyes an eerie golden and his shoulders thrown back in Tadashi’s usual posture.

Even though she’d only seen her boys do this a handful of times, she fought down her initial unease to face them fully, her hand on her hip. “Hey, Tadashi. What’s up? Did you need something?”

Hiro’s body seemed to hesitate for a moment, and Aunt Cass felt a brief flash of concern, but then suddenly he was rushing towards her. There was a whisper of fire against her skin that she knew must be Tadashi’s hidden hitodama as thin arms threw themselves around her in a hug. Caught off guard, Aunt Cass could only bring her own arms up to support him.

“Tadashi?” she asked carefully.

“I just wanted to say hi, Aunt Cass,” Tadashi whispered against her shoulder, squeezing her tightly. “And thank you. For everything.”

Aunt Cass only paused a moment more, and then melted into the hug. “I love you boys,” she told him gently. “And I’m so glad you’re still here.”

They hugged a second longer, and then Tadashi was pulling back. He gave her a smile that looked so familiar even on Hiro’s face that for a moment it was like he had never died, and he was still there with her. But then the moment was gone and Hiro’s body was stiffening and his eyes going wide as Tadashi left his body and gave him back control.

Hiro came back to himself, seemed to realize where he was, and the swore. “Damnit, Tadashi! You’re gonna make me even _more_ late, and Mrs. Matsuda’s going to make me wash out the cauldron again!”

Without waiting any longer, Hiro charged back down the stairs, a string of curses and a ghostly shadow following in his wake. Aunt Cass watched them both go with a fond expression, taking her glasses off for a moment to wipe a tear from her eye.

And then she got back to work clearing the dishes. She had a lot of work to do, especially with preparing for the influx of supernatural customers in the evening, and she wasn’t going to get it done by standing around and crying.

Humming an old folk tune from her childhood to herself, she headed down to the kitchen to start baking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAH IT'S OVERRRR!
> 
> We hope you all loved diving back into the Betwixt 'verse once more as much as we did. We loved creating Betwixt so much we knew we had to write more for it, and thus The Dead Bury Themselves was born! Sorry for all of the heart attacks we no doubt gave you, but we made up for it with hugs? :D
> 
> However, unfortunately we're probably going to put this 'verse away for a while. As much fun as it is to write Medium!Hiro and Yurei!Tadashi, we figure we should branch out a bit and try some other things for a bit, just to keep things fresh. We may come back to the Betwixt 'verse some time and write some one-shots or short stories, but for now it's time for a break.
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who read, commented, and kudos-ed both Betwixt and The Dead Bury Themselves! We couldn't have done this without your support! You are all awesome and we appreciate you all!
> 
> Thank you! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all ready for this?
> 
> Awww yeah, we're back in action with a sequel to Betwixt the Blackout Curtain! Because we had such a blast writing that one, we couldn't possibly give up on this 'verse just yet!
> 
> Originally this was going to just be a series of oneshots set in the Betwixt universe, but then a plot for a sequel snuck up on Ikira and smacked her upside the head so here we are! Hang on to your butts, kids, because this is going to be all kinds of crazy!
> 
> As always, all of the lovely art is provided by SpiritusRex, Machina-Rex on tumblr. Ikira's tumblr is IkiraCake. Come check us out and say hi! We're friendly, we promise! :D


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